This is big business. The N.R.A. takes in more than $200 million a year, which is a heck of a lot more than it made back in the old days, when its principal activity was running marksmanship classes. A considerable chunk of the cash comes from gun manufacturers and gun sellers. I cannot help but think that this was the constituency its lobbyists had in mind when they recently pushed Virginia to repeal its one-handgun-a-month purchase law. According to a recent poll, two-thirds of the residents of the state liked the law just fine. However, it did pose a considerable hardship for hard-working small businessmen involved in the transport of large quantities of weaponry up the East Coast to drug gangs in Philadelphia and New York City.

But guns-on-campus bills are perhaps the best proof that success is driving the N.R.A. to levels of craziness it never would have contemplated in the past.

Arizona, which has already passed absolutely every other law the anti-gun-violence crowd opposes, is currently considering a bill making it legal to carry guns on the campuses of public colleges and universities. The State Board of Regents estimates that administering it would cost the equivalent of 25 full-time faculty positions a year.

The legislation, which sailed through last time around only to be vetoed by the governor, currently seems to be stalled. If you are a person so intensely optimistic that you find this to be good news, I salute you. Perhaps you should consider a career in the gun control lobbying field.

Since no amount of gun-related tragedy seems sufficient to get state lawmakers to dial back on their firearms-friendly laws, we need to find a different approach, or face a future in which citizens of some states are required to carry a weapon with them at all times except when bathing.

I am thinking that the best solution for all concerned would be a strict national gun-control law that makes it very difficult to get a concealed weapons permit, permits gun dealers to sell only one handgun per individual per year, and makes it illegal for even permit holders to keep handguns anywhere but their home, store or car glove compartment unless they are employed in the security business.

The N.R.A. would have a whole new lease on life, and the donations from the gun industry would come flooding in. Legislators in red states would be kept out of other mischief for a decade, while they devoted their entire careers to passing new gun-friendly laws. And it’s very possible that the purple states would find that they like the new order of things just fine. Everybody wins!

No need to thank me. It’s the least I could do for the school bus drivers.