How Many Gun Bills Pass After Mass Shootings?
Impact Mark of a .45 Hollowpoint Bullet in Plexiglas Deborah Bay Very few. After tragedies like the Navy Yard shooting Monday, people often want to do something or change something. It's a natural reaction to an extreme event. But how much really gets done after mass shootings? In June, two criminal justice researchers reviewed the bills legislators proposed after three school shootings: Columbine, Jonesboro, and Virginia Tech. School shootings are similar to workplace shootings such as the Navy Yard tragedy: "People get hung up on age and that's why they see these as very different," H. Jaymi Elsass tells Popular Science. "They're really very similar kinds of events with very similar kinds of relationships involved in those settings." (Elsass was not involved in the June review, but is a colleague of the authors at Texas State University-San Marcos. All are doctoral students in criminal justice.) In the 12 months after the Columbine...