In the wake of the Sandy Hook massacre, President Obama seized the moment to push for legislation expanding federal gun control laws. As it turned out, his proposal could not make its way through Congress quickly enough for public opinion to remain on his side.

The Democrat-controlled Senate could not muster the votes for his plan. This was in large part because nothing Congress considered at that time could have prevented the bloody school shooting, committed by a mentally disturbed man who had actually been turned down when he tried to purchase a gun. Instead, he killed his own mother and stole her legally purchased, background-checked weapons from her home.