Nonexistent Advances in Weapon Control One Year after Newtown

One year ago, the slaughter at Sandy Hook Elementary School, in which 27 people died, 20 of them children, shook the United States as no similar massacre had done before. The scale of the tragedy was considered a turning point to change, once and for all, the nation’s culture of violence and to achieve more restrictive control over the use of weapons. President Barack Obama himself made this job a personal crusade. Today, however, it is easier to obtain and carry a firearm than before.

“Are we really prepared to say that we’re powerless in the face of such carnage, that the politics are too hard?” Obama asked during his speech in Newtown, Conn. two days after the shooting. With the polls on his side, the president started an ambitious campaign to pass legislation that restricted access to weapons and required that criminal and mental records be considered during all sales of weapons and ammunition. However, a bipartisan proposal reflecting these ideals died in the Senate. This was thanks to the support of various Democratic senators from states with traditionally lenient firearms policies who were afraid of losing their seats in the 2014 election.

The White House was not the only one to begin a strong offense in favor of greater weapon control. New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg, former Congresswoman and shooting victim Gabrielle Giffords, and other organizations plan to earmark more than $25 million next year to support candidates that defend a restrictive vision toward the use of weapons. They will need to see if this amount is sufficient to stand up to the omnipotent weapons lobby in the U.S., which won the battle this year. In order to attract the support of politicians in the Capitol, the National Rifle Association and other related groups spent $12.2 million in 2013, compared to the $1.6 million from associations that oppose the principles defended by the NRA.

On the eve of the Sandy Hook anniversary, support for more restrictive legislation over the control of weapons has also fallen. Although support for increased background checks continues to be high, it has decreased from about 90 percent to close to 80 percent since the spring. Likewise, today, 49 percent of Americans are in favor of more stringent laws, compared to the 58 percent that shared this opinion in October, according to Gallup.

The White House and Bloomberg, however, hope that the anniversary of the Newtown massacre will rekindle the fight over weapon control. The president has asked the organization that sponsors his measures in civil society, Organizing for Action, to carry out events on Dec. 14 throughout the country in favor of tighter legislation to control the possession of firearms. The organizations Mayors Against Illegal Guns and Moms Demand Action have launched, with the arrival of the one-year anniversary of the Sandy Hook shooting, a polemic ad demanding a greater compromise by citizens in favor of restricting weapon possession. The ad showed a group of young people in a high school observing a minute of silence to commemorate the tragedy, while a man approached with a suspicious bag. This Thursday, Dec. 12, in Washington, various relatives of Sandy Hook victims took part in a vigil in the capital’s cathedral, asking for increased control over firearms.