Just to underscore that the issue of gun control is a state and local issue as well as a federal issue -- Connecticut lawmakers tried to ban high capacity magazines last year and faced far more opposition than support.
The shooter at Sandy Hook Elementary in Newtown, Adam Lanza, 20, used a Bushmaster AR-15 rifle with magazines containing 30 rounds as his main weapon, said Connecticut State Police Lieutenant Paul Vance at a news conference yesterday.
A proposal in March 2011 would have made it a felony to possess magazines with more than 10 bullets and required owners to surrender them to law enforcement or remove them from the state. Opponents sent more than 30,000 e-mails and letters to state lawmakers as part of a campaign organized by the NRA and other gun advocates, said Robert Crook, head of the Hartford- based Coalition of Connecticut Sportsmen, which opposed the legislation. [...]
Proponents abandoned the legislation, which drew opposition from gunmakers including Sturm, Ruger & Co. (RGR) In addition to the e-mails and letters, more than 300 pro-gun activists, including many NRA members, attended a committee hearing to oppose it, said Gallo, a Hartford-based lobbyist for more than 35 years.
Some people are having a change of heart after the Sandy Hook school shooting, but we can't rely on that.
Reversing decades of pervasive gun culture will require a sustained campaign spanning many years. You can't be angry for a few weeks and then forget about it, because gun worshipers won't.