Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords (D-AZ), a staunch supporter of the Second Amendment, isn’t even out of critical condition territory and her more liberal colleagues are already talking about implementing more gun control. Their course of action, while understandable, is the wrong response.

First of all, even having gone so far as to ban all gun ownership wouldn’t have prevented this crime. Jared Loughner purchased the Glock legally because he could. But does anyone really think this psychopath would have decided against doing what he did if he couldn’t walk into a gun store and buy a gun? Of course it wouldn’t have stopped him.

Think about this for a moment. He was planning to kill dozens of people, including a member of Congress. He intentionally shot and killed a 9-year-old child. He’s a sick bastard who set out to murder as many people as possible. And we’re working on the assumption that having made his possession of a gun illegal would have stopped him? As if he doesn’t care about murdering people but, hey, that gun law totally would have stopped him in his tracks.

An individual who displays no hesitation in murdering children doesn’t care about some gun law you’ve implemented. Buying a gun illegally on the street would cost him more money, sure. But at the end of the day, people would still be dead. Your addition of a weapons possession charge means little when the suspect is already facing multiple counts of murder.

So what’s the harm in more gun control? The only people who will follow the law are law-abiding individuals. In short, people who wouldn’t use the weapon to murder children. People who instead will use the weapon to, say, return fire when some psychopath begins shooting into a crowd.

A law-abiding, gun-carrying American could have returned fire and stopped Jared Loughner early on, potentially saving multiple lives. More gun control would stop such law-abiding Americans from being present in similar scenarios. But more gun control wouldn’t have stopped this psychopath from carrying out his act of terror.