Guns

America Goes Back to Sleep on Gun Control, NRA Wide Awake

My Thursday column:

I spend a considerable amount of time and energy writing about political reality in an attempt to not necessarily become satisfied with it and complacent about it, but to use political reality as a means of changing the system from within. Ignoring reality and plowing ahead with a political agenda is sort of like trying to write a new and interesting song without knowing how to play a musical instrument. You can't change music without knowing and embracing the basic vocabulary of music, and so it is with politics.

However, there's one aspect of political and, in this case, social reality that continuously confounds me. Americans, including the most vocal liberal activists in social media and the blogs, have an excruciatingly short attention span.

Yesterday, David Frum linked to several statistics showing that the conversation about gun control has reverted back to December 13, 2012 levels -- the day before the Sandy Hook massacre. [continue reading]