The sparse turnout outside City Hall had to be discouraging Thursday for a phalanx of government leaders intent on bringing public pressure to bear on the nation's wavering lawmakers to enact gun controls. "The overwhelming majority of Americans have been on our side," noted Senator Richard Blumenthal, who had to concede, "but they have been the silent majority."
He underlined the central question: Are the strong public opinion poll numbers for gun controls, which registered at 90 percent immediately after the December school massacre in nearby Newtown, already fading in the bewildering maw of gun politics on Capitol Hill?
Here on Main Street, the art of suffocating needed reform by Congress felt palpable. The proposed ban on the sort of assault rifle used in Newtown is sagely pronounced a political nonstarter even before the Senate votes. Hope fades for a ban on high-capacity ammunition magazines. And the call for universal background checks for gun ownership is increasingly in doubt as Senate Republicans, sensing dwindling interest, resort to usual vows to filibuster.
The gathering here of a few score of people was one of more than 100 rallies organized by the Obama administration and mayors as part of a national grass-roots campaign. Hopeful speeches were delivered, but it seemed clear that a far more fully aroused public will be required to budge enough lawmakers from their obeisance to the gun lobby. Gov. Dannel Malloy of Connecticut made no secret of his frustration with the pace of nonaction, both in the Statehouse across town and in Congress. He denounced the "silliness" of a drawn-out police investigation that has kept basic information about the tragedy secret for three months — information the public and lawmakers need to know in driving for a solution.
This is no minor point. Some grisly details were recently leaked at a police convention about the rapid-fire execution of the 20 Newtown children and six school personnel. Yet victimized parents and legislators were kept in the dark as the gun control debate lost traction. Though a few censored details emerged Thursday, a fuller understanding of the truth of gun violence is critical, particularly in grasping the outsized firepower of the purported "sportsman's" weapon, the military-style Bushmaster XM-15-E2S assault rifle that destroyed the Newtown victims in a spray of 154 rounds. "The more we know, the more compelling argument at the national level," Mr. Blumenthal said.
In Washington, President Obama sounded no less frustrated than Mr. Malloy. "Shame on us if we've forgotten," Mr. Obama told an audience at the White House in reviewing the worrisome arc of the gun control debate as it moves further in time from the Newtown massacre. "I haven't forgotten those kids," he said. "We need everybody to remember how we felt 100 days ago and make sure that what we said at that time wasn't just a bunch of platitudes."
Platitudes bunch like flowers across the nation's history of trying to achieve effective gun controls. After the Columbine school massacre, a Mother's Day march in 2000 on the National Mall drew hundreds of thousands of citizens demanding action. It was an impressive sight that participants thought could surely not be ignored by Congress. Its agenda also included the same proposal for universal background checks for gun ownership that is being sought, nearly 13 years later, as the only responsible way to mark the Newtown tragedy.
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