As I write this column on Wednesday 25 May, the death toll from the US’s latest mass shooting, at Robb Elementary School in the town of Uvalde, Texas, has climbed to 21 – 19 children aged between eight and ten, and two adults.
When he got the news of the 24 May shooting, Chris Murphy, a Democratic senator from Connecticut, literally begged his Republican colleagues to “find a path forward” to working with Democrats toward sensible gun regulation and efforts to mitigate America’s mass shooting problem.
Senator Murphy later told reporters that he would be willing to support a compromise as opposed to doing nothing at all, but that it seemed to him Republican opposition to sensible gun reform had only hardened, making even modest legislation on gun control highly unlikely. It’s the same story after every mass shooting.
