Is Tighter Gun Control Possible?

          As Dominic and Dan discussed in their posts, another horrific school shooting occurred on Thursday, this time at Umpqua Community College in Oregon. It was the 142nd school shooting to have occurred since the tragic shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School. With so many Americans having been affected already, and so many others in fear of a similar travesty occurring their own community, all eyes are on Congress to take action. But what are the odds that Congress can pass any legislation to increase gun control?

From The LA Times. View the full interactive map here: http://graphics.latimes.com/school-shootings-since-newtown/

        Even after the tragic events at Sandy Hook, Congress was unable to come together and pass legislation requiring background checks before gun purchases. The spring after the shooting, the Senate-which had a Democratic majority- tried to pass legislation requiring background checks, but they could only muster up 55 of the 60 votes necessary to do so. The House, which was already controlled by the GOP, did nothing. Since then, support and momentum have only decreased with an ever-partisan Senate and House constantly butting heads over whether to make guns easier or harder to attain. Despite President Obama's constant begging and pleading, Congress seems to be headed nowhere on gun control, and the lack of action and the President's anger and blame is not doing anything for already low Congressional approval.
      With so many school shootings, and so little actions being taken to prevent the next one, what does this mean for the upcoming elections? Gun control is certainly going to be an issue that comes to forefront, not just in the presidential election, but in congressional races as well, especially when so many districts have been affected by heartbreaking school shootings in the last few years. As many people expressed in The New York Times, Americans' fear of guns is growing with each school shooting and the government's inaction is infuriating- and not just to those who have been personally affected. Could a growing number of Americans hoping to get stricter gun control laws passed help more moderate/left-leaning candidates take open seats in the next election?
       In the meantime, we can only hope that Congress will take a hint from their constituents, and take further measures to prevent the already long list of school shootings from getting any longer.


     
Sources:
http://graphics.latimes.com/school-shootings-since-newtown/
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/2015/10/02/us/politics/ap-us-congress-guns-qa.html
http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-fix/wp/2015/10/02/the-declining-momentum-for-gun-control-in-congress-in-2-charts/
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/10/03/opinion/calls-for-gun-control-after-oregon-college-shooting.html