FROM THE EDITOR: Did the Sandy Hook victims really die in vain?

Tomorrow is the first anniversary of the tragic shooting deaths of 26 people, including 20 first graders, at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn.

A year after 20-year-old Asperger’s sufferer Adam Lanza had the ultimate meltdown, walking into a school and committing premeditated mass murder, the family members and friends of the dead still grieve, most sane citizens still ache, and most extreme gun enthusiasts can still equip their mentally handicapped children with assault weapons and enough ammo to take out several college football teams.

America’s moral compass spins and spins, true north, or sanity, an exercise in futility.

Most of the dastardly liberal media in reporting the upcoming anniversary of this come-to-life horror flick noted a curious fact: In the year since Sandy Hook, states introduced 1,500 pieces of gun control legislation, passing 109 into law, 70 of which actually EASED gun restrictions.

Yes We Can!

Adam Lanza’s evil, deranged kill-crazy shooting spree, far from spurring new and successful gun control efforts, which it should have done, if this were a saner nation, actually turned out to be a marketing and sales bonanza for gun stores, gun manufacturers, ammunition makers and National Rifle Association lobbyists.

Never in the history of the U.S. gun business have more people run right out after a great American shooting spree to stock up on assault rifles, high capacity ammo drums and other personal and home protection essentials, all in false anticipation that Barack Hussein Obama or his minions were going to come to their state and personally close off this spigot of death.

Nope. The cold-blooded, cowardly slaughter of 20 first graders is only enough to clear the shelves at your nearest Walmart sporting goods department of all its ammo for eight straight months. That’s all. Back to normal.

And that’s terrible. It sends a terrible message to the outside world, sends a terrible message to future generations, if there are any, and just compounds the tragedy of Dec. 14, 2012, all the more.

Now, lest you think otherwise, let me tell you, I grew up around guns. I went hunting a bit as a child and even did a little as an adult. Didn’t much care for it. I have no problem with gun ownership, have a few myself.

That said, there is a mania in this country about guns. And it is directly linked to outbursts of violence like the one witnessed by the world a year ago.

Some people just have no business owning guns, shooting guns, being around guns, even looking at or touching guns. Their family knows who they are. Their friends usually do, too.

Society often doesn’t know who they are until it’s too late. That should change.

Real world example of what I’m talking about: I know a young lady, sweet as could be, but she has a mental deficiency. I see her once every year or so at family functions. She doesn’t talk much, but other than that passes for pretty normal.

Every time I see her, she’s carrying around her Nevada state driver’s education booklet. She dreams of cruising the open roads on her own. Freedom.

But she can’t pass the driving test, written or otherwise. She has tried to for years now.

There’s a good reason why the State of Nevada has not issued her a driver’s license. And it’s mostly to protect herself and other drivers.

I strongly believe that better regulation is needed to make sure future Adam Lanzas don’t happen. Like driving, I think gun ownership should be treated as a privilege, even if it means a Constitutional amendment and a few wackos have to turn in their pistolas.

I think gun owners should be a certain age, take a gun education course to get a license to own guns and renew that license and take refresher courses every so often. I think heavier weaponry should require specialized licensing and training. I think gun owners should carry liability insurance on their weapons just like they do on their cars — the younger and dumber you are and the sportier you like your assault rifle, the more your premium should be. The older and blinder you are, maybe it’s time to give the guns to the grandkids — as long as they have their license, of course.

I think a program like that is more than fair. It may just weed out psychopaths like Adam Lanza, or their delusional parents, who never in a million years would have gotten him through a gun ownership course of the type I’m describing.

Yet, there he was, last year, access to a Bushmaster assault rifle, a Glock 20, shooting kids and teachers at point-blank range, a check from his delusional and at that point very dead mother sitting on their kitchen counter for police to find later.

The check was a Christmas gift, money for a CZ83 — a new pistol for mommy’s little monster.

Adam Lanza didn’t get to cash his stocking stuffer. The parents of Newtown victims get heartbreak again this year for Christmas. Society mostly remains less safe and the needle on the compass spins round and round.