How many millions of lives have been saved through providing useful information to consumers? This drain cleaner is poisonous, so don’t consume it. This drug is unsafe to use before driving. What to do in an earthquake, a flood or flu outbreak. As it happens, firearms are often used to commit suicide, so it was perfectly sensible when Anne Arundel County two years ago approved a statute requiring gun shops to carry literature educating customers on gun safety, training and the risk of self-harm. It was then wholly unreasonable when a group of gun retailers and a Maryland gun rights group subsequently sued to prevent the law from ever being enforced.

Fortunately, that effort ended Monday when the U.S. Supreme Court declined to hear the case brought by Maryland Shall Issue and others.

Gun rights groups, the National Rifle Association included, have found fundraising success, of course, in their absolutist approach to gun safety efforts. They promote the mistaken view that the Second Amendment and the right to bear arms trumps everything else in the United States of America. Yet attacking the public health handouts in question — on First Amendment free speech grounds, incredibly — probably only damaged their cause. It was the equivalent of attacking the county for requiring businesses to have lighted exit signs. How dare they? Well, obviously, to allow people to find a way out in an emergency. Nearly 27,000 people died by gun suicide in 2022, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which was more than half of all the gun violence deaths that year. Shouldn’t everyone be informed?

One can only hope this sudden bout of gun law common sense will continue at the Supreme Court, which the same day heard oral arguments in a case challenging the Biden administration’s efforts to regulate “ghost gun” kits that allow people to make their own guns. Ghost guns have become a popular choice within Baltimore’s criminal class because they are relatively easy to obtain but difficult to trace. We’re all for requiring kit purchasers to undergo background checks and for parts to be marked with serial numbers. Given how the court declined to block Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosions regulations last year, we have high hopes that Chief Justice John Roberts, Justice Amy Coney Barrett and the court’s three progressive members will stand firm. We appreciate any help in the gun violence arena we can get.