Why Nothing is to Be Done
We need to just admit the obvious: nothing will ever be done about gun safety in this country because people just don't care.
If there's also anything that is true about issues like gun safety and legislation, it's that the loudest voices will always erode what advocates like to call "common sense legislation" because the decibel level drowns out reasonable discourse. And that's a longstanding and fatal flaw of the gun safety crowd: too much emphasis on being logical and reasonable in the face of an opposition that always whips up hysteria and and an avalanche of lies to change public perception. Photos of dead kids do not move the hearts of the NRA or their acolytes: screaming and shouting about vast conspiracies to "take away our guns" will always trump tearful parents saying "this needs to stop." The strategy is not even secret: it's out there for everyone to see, but time and time again, gun safety advocates naïvely believe that what the public wants is civil discourse.
The public wants no such thing. If that were remotely true, then the strategy of the NRA to scare people wouldn't be effective. People respond to emotion, especially in large groups, and that's what they base their decisions on. And once that is made, it's very hard to dislodge it away with "facts" because those "facts" weren't even used in the first place, but the public **believes** otherwise. This is the end product of a successful propaganda campaign: getting people to accept your viewpoint under the guise of them making an informed decision when you've done all the talking. So once again, gun safety advocates are left floundering in the face of eroding public support for gun legislation when they had convinced themselves they had momentum.
Groups like the NRA will always win these so-called debates because they know hysterical tactics will work and that gun safety advocates will have the false belief in the alleged wisdom of the public. Coupled with a financial vice-grip on politicians, their position will be secured, because politicos have no stomach to disobey. And after all this posturing, when it comes down to it, nothing of any consequence will be done. We don't care about school massacres, we don't care about stacks of dead bodies, we just care about the lie that the federal government is coming to take our guns.