Sandy Hook's dead deserve a change in US gun law. But don't hold your breath

Ben Adler
The Observer, Saturday 15 December 2012 12.16 EST

... America has, of course, experienced the ugly side of its loose gun restrictions for decades. But the frequency of mass shootings has recently risen. Six of the 12 most deadly in history have been in the past five years. However, even seeing one of their own, Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords, victimised in such an event in 2011 did not spur Congress to take action. There have been 65 mass shootings since Giffords was wounded.

And yet this feels as though it may be different. This time, the shock is more extreme, the feeling more visceral and the political pivot – towards the need for greater gun control – faster and more focused. Perhaps it is because so many of the victims were kindergartners, only five years old. Perhaps, finally, it is because Americans can only tolerate so many senseless deaths from gun violence. Or perhaps gun control is just having a moment. Two weeks ago, after the footballer Jovan Belcher killed his girlfriend and himself, NBC sports announcer Bob Costas asked on national television whether gun culture was to blame; and at least seven NFL players reportedly turned in their guns in the week that followed.

Gun control enjoyed a brief spike in public awareness after some of the shootings in the 1990s. After a madman went on a killing spree on the Long Island Rail Road in 1993, Carolyn McCarthy – wife and mother to victims of the shooting – became an anti-gun activist. Eventually she won a congressional seat and became a leading advocate for gun control. A federal ban on assault weapons was passed in 1994, and the infamous shootings at Columbine high school in Littleton, Colorado in 1999 seemed to reinforce the urgency of the issue.

But things changed. In 2000, many political observers attributed Al Gore's loss in West Virginia to the unpopularity of gun control in that rural state. The pro-gun lobby became ever more powerful, and declining crime rates caused the issue to slip from the public's mind. The assault weapons ban lapsed in 2004 and has not been renewed. This event alone will not make Congress come to its senses. The House of Representatives is controlled by the Republican party. The recent increase in devastating hurricanes has not changed their minds on global warming, so why should 20 dead children change their minds about gun control? ...