James Warren writes a column for the Chicago News Cooperative.

Don Mastrianni, owner of Illinois Gun Works in Elmwood Park, was telling me last week about attending a Chicago seminar sponsored by the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.

“Some official was saying that if a guy shows up in a suit and tie and wants to buy a gun, you can pretty much figure he doesn’t belong in a gang. But I said: ‘Are you naïve?! Gangs have guys who dress up nice and buy guns, too.’ ”

While giving me a primer on buying guns, Mr. Mastrianni was surprised when I told him this: Somebody can be barred from taking a flight at O’Hare International Airport because he is a suspected terrorist but not from buying a gun at Mr. Mastrianni’s shop.

Yes, this might even give pause to a few die-hard Fox News Channel viewers, whom one presumes exhibit Pavlovian fidelity to the Second Amendment right to “keep and bear arms.”