Graeme Wood has spent much of the pandemic outside of the United States; doing his writing mostly from Norway and Canada. Earlier this month, however, Wood decided to return home, and drove over the US/Canadian border at Niagara Falls one night just after midnight. New York is home to the SAFE Act; the package of gun control laws that requires all handgun owners to register them with the government, bans so-called assault weapons and “high capacity” magazines, and requires mandatory prison sentence for anyone caught carrying a gun without a license. If gun control worked the way its supporters believe, then Wood’s story would have focused on the joys of spending time with family, returning to old haunts and catching up with old friends, and maybe some snark about those unvaccinated red-staters who make him long for the fjords of Norway.