Obama Brings Gun Debate to Fore

The Wall Street Journal reports that President Obama’s comments “on the need to act against gun violence mirror those he made in the aftermath of the 2011 shooting in Tucson, Ariz., that severely wounded then-Rep. Gabrielle Giffords and killed six. He stopped short of making any proposals after that incident, however, and no new federal gun laws were enacted in its aftermath.”

“Whether the Connecticut school shootings, in which 27 people were killed, will lead to an effort to tighten gun laws will likely depend on the facts of the incident, many of which remained murky throughout Friday.”

Politico notes that “this time, the immediate, impassioned calls for new gun-control measures far outstripped the reaction to a series of other recent shooting sprees across the country, including at a Colorado movie theater, a Sikh temple in Wisconsin and a shopping mall in Oregon.”