Legislating the Taboo

Maryland lawmakers shared personal stories of domestic abuse on the state Senate floor, The Washington Post reports, as they advanced a bill Thursday making it easier for judges to take guns away from domestic violence suspects. If it is no longer taboo for politicians to talk about domestic violence, will the legislative process form domestic violence laws in a different way? Does stripping an amendment that would make it easier for domestic violence victims to get handgun permits, for instance -- as the Maryland lawmakers did, fearing it would complicate passage -- somehow express new social values, or less shame? Just some open-ended questions.