n the year since the slaughter of 26 first-graders and educators in Newtown, Conn., guns have been used tokill more than 30,000 people in America. They died in spree killings, accidents, suicides and day-to-day violence. According to a USA TODAY database, 30mass killings since Newtown have claimed at least four victims; all but six of those tragedies involved firearms.
OPPOSING VIEW: Misplaced focus after Newtown massacre
In that same year, Congress has turned down everyreasonable proposal to tighten restrictions on guns. It said no to universal background checks. No to tougher penalties for gun trafficking. No to bans on the assault weapons and high-capacity magazines prized by mass shooters.
Given this wretched record, it would be easy to conclude that Newtown had no effect on the national dialogue on firearms. But, in reality, the impact has been significant, in ways both bad and good.
On the negative side, Newtown provoked a huge backlash among those who want fewer or no limits. Gun owners and would-be gun owners read the news about possible restrictions as a sign that the government would soon take away their guns or block them from buying new ones. The NRA and other gun groups eagerly fanned that fear with a drumbeat of misleading claims about what proposed laws would do.
Gun safety advocates would do well to remember how easy it is to provoke such paranoia, and they should emphasize reality: Not only do most Americans favor legal gun ownership, the Supreme Court has twice said the Second Amendment guarantees it. No one is going to take guns away from legal owners. The goal is to keep them away from criminals and the dangerously deranged.
On the positive side, the Newtown effect in states was mixed, but better than the gridlock on Capitol Hill. In states scarred by mass shootings, or where voters tend to favor tougher gun laws, legislators passed 39 proposals to tighten gun restrictions, including background checks and restrictions on assault weapons and large magazines, according to a detailed analysis in The New York Times. At the same time, though, other states also passed 70 laws to loosen gun restrictions.
Although federal laws have more impact, these new state laws will serve an important "laboratory of democracy" function. They will provide useful data on what works, and what doesn't work, that will influence the national gun debate going forward.
The struggle for effective gun laws has always been a long one. It took 12 years from the shooting of President Reagan and press secretary James Brady in 1981 to the signing of the Brady Act that required background checks for gun buyers. The massacres of recent years have energized gun safety groups, such as those founded by outgoing New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg and former Arizona representative Gabby Giffords.
Newtown didn't change gun politics as much as many wanted this year, but to say it changed nothing would be wrong — and premature.
