If ever there was a Pyrrhic victory, Boris Johnson’s win in last week’s no-confidence vote must qualify. Britain’s prime minister secured the majority he needed to hang on, if he decides to, but by the surprisingly narrow margin of 211 votes to 148. More than 40% of his own party in Parliament told him to go.

The recent mass shootings have terrified the nation. It’s not just the ferocity of the attacks. It’s the randomness of the victims, whether elementary school children or elderly women shopping at the neighborhood supermarket. People doing normal things, the things all of us do, find themselves attacked by a heavily armed man with a powerful, rapidly firing gun.