In theory, you would assume something like that would indeed bring lawmakers together in a partisan way to pass some logical and much needed gun legislation. But historically that's has been proven not to make a difference and in one instance it even exacerbated the problem of guns.
In 2011, Gabby Giffords, a US Congresswoman from Arizona was shot in the head at close range outside of a Safeway supermarket. Thank God she survived but she had an excruciatingly long recovery and suffers permanent facial and right sided paralysis. She's a staunch advocate for gun control of course, but what new legislation was passed by Congress after her assassination attempt? None.
After the nation’s worst mass shootings, in Newtown, Conn.; Aurora, Colo.; Orlando, Fla.; and Columbine High School in Colorado, gun control advocates rose to demand more rigorous laws: stricter background checks, limits on magazine capacities, bans on assault weapons and tougher controls on gun shows and online firearms markets — almost always to no avail.
After the 2017 shooting of Steve Scalise at the annual Congressional baseball game, there were hopes that Republicans would cross the aisle and together with their Democratic counterparts, would enact some meaningful gun legislation. They didn't. Not only were no new laws passed, conservative lawmakers, some of whom were nearly the victims of gun violence, pressed to loosen gun controls. Three bills introduced in the Republican-held House would allow lawmakers to almost always carry a concealed weapon. A fourth would allow concealed carry permits obtained in other states to be recognized in the District of Columbia. Still another would eliminate federal controls on silencers.
Does any of that, even a tiny bit, make real sense as far as controlling gun violence, massacre of kids in school or shoppers in Walmart?
