Twenty years ago, in the Clinton era, Congress passed two far-reaching gun control bills--mandated Federal background check for handgun purchases, and a 10-year ban on importation and sale of so-called "assault" weapons and large-capacity magazines. The precipitating event--the Reagan and Brady shootings--occurred more than a decade earlier.

This time, with the CT horror still fresh in most people's minds, the Senate failed to pass a much less sweeping expansion of background checks--and another ban on specific weapons didn't even make it into the bill. What happened? First, Obama's no Clinton--he's close to being the most ineffectual president since Carter. Second, probably more Americans have embraced the idea that guns aren't the problem--it's the people who misuse them or shouldn't have them. So, why didn't the background check expansion pass? Probably because, over the past 20 years, far more Americans either have lost faith in their government to solve problems rationally, or are convinced that Big Brother is scheming to take away their rights.

My view: although expanded background checks would not have prevented the CT horror, they might--just might--prevent some people who shouldn't have firearms from buying them. As a law-abiding gun owner and a CCW holder, I would not have objected to submitting to a background check at a gun show.