XPost: alt.fan.rush-limbaugh, alt.politics.republicans, sac.politics   
   XPost: talk.politics.guns   
   From: hwaller@squeal.piggy   
      
   On 04 Apr 2022, PaxPerPoten  posted some   
   news:t2fn4a$3jbnm$265@news.freedyn.de:   
      
   > See?  Good does come from mass shootings.   
      
   Calls for new gun legislation that previously failed to pass Congress are   
   being raised again after the May 24, 2022, mass shooting at an elementary   
   school in the small town of Uvalde, Texas.   
      
   An 18-year-old shooter killed at least 19 fourth grade students and two   
   teachers at Robb Elementary School, marking the deadliest school shooting   
   in the U.S. in a decade.   
      
   The U.S. has been here before – after shootings in Tucson, Aurora,   
   Newtown, Charleston, Roseburg, San Bernardino, Orlando, Las Vegas,   
   Parkland, El Paso, Boulder, and 10 days earlier at a grocery store in   
   Buffalo, N.Y.   
      
   Gun production and sales in the U.S. remain high, following a purchasing   
   surge during the COVID-19 pandemic. In 2021, the firearms industry sold   
   about six guns for every 100 Americans.   
      
   Senator Chris Murphy of Connecticut was among the Democratic politicians   
   who pleaded for action on gun control as horrifying details of the Uvalde   
   school shooting unfolded.   
      
   “What are we doing?” Murphy asked other lawmakers, speaking from the   
   Senate floor on the day of the shooting. “Why are you here if not to solve   
   a problem as existential as this?”   
      
   Congress has declined to pass significant new gun legislation after dozens   
   of shootings, including those that occurred during periods like this one,   
   with Democrats controlling the House of Representatives, Senate and   
   presidency.   
      
   This response may seem puzzling given that national opinion polls reveal   
   extensive support for several gun control policies, including expanding   
   background checks and banning assault weapons.   
      
   In October 2021, 52% of people polled by Gallup said that they thought   
   firearm sales laws should be made more strict.   
      
   But polls do not determine policy.   
      
   I am a professor of strategy at UCLA and have researched gun policy. With   
   my co-authors at Harvard University, I’ve studied how gun laws change   
   following mass shootings.   
      
   Our research on this topic finds there is legislative activity following   
   these tragedies, but it’s at the state level.   
      
   Restrictions loosened   
   Stricter gun laws at the national level are more popular among Democrats   
   than Republicans, and major new legislation would likely need votes from   
   at least 10 Republican senators. Many of these senators represent   
   constituencies opposed to gun control.   
      
   Despite national polls showing majority support for an assault weapons   
   ban, not one of the 30 states with a Republican-controlled legislature has   
   such a policy.   
      
   U.S. Texas Senator Ted Cruz said on May 24 that more gun control laws   
   could not have prevented the Uvalde attack, explaining “that doesn’t work,   
   it’s not effective, it doesn’t prevent crime.”   
      
   The absence of strict control policies in Republican-controlled states   
   shows that senators crossing party lines to support gun control would be   
   out of step with the views of voters whose support they need to win   
   elections.   
      
   But a lack of action from Congress doesn’t mean gun laws are stagnant   
   after mass shootings.   
      
   To examine how policy changes, we assembled data on shootings and gun   
   legislation in the 50 states between 1990 and 2014. Overall, we identified   
   more than 20,000 firearm bills and nearly 3,200 enacted laws. Some of   
   these loosened gun restrictions, others tightened them, and still others   
   did neither or both – that is, tightened in some dimensions but loosened   
   in others.   
      
   We then compared gun laws before and after mass shootings in states where   
   mass shootings occurred, relative to all other states.   
      
   Contrary to the view that nothing changes, state legislatures consider 15%   
   more firearm bills the year after a mass shooting. Deadlier shootings –   
   which receive more media attention – have larger effects.   
      
   In fact, mass shootings have a greater influence on lawmakers than other   
   homicides, even though they account for less than 1% of gun deaths in the   
   United States.   
      
   As impressive as this 15% increase in gun bills may sound, gun legislation   
   can reduce gun violence only if it becomes law. And when it comes to   
      
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