Policy changes avert shifting cultural attitudes towards guns.

I think it's going to be virtually impossible to remove the guns.... we have to get serious about separating guns from people that ought not have them.

My prime interest is lowering the violent crime rate is in finding policies that are effective, practical, politically feasible, and can be implemented in the near term. I believe that all of the political theatre around guns (on both sides) is the largest impediment to improving the situation.

My friends on the left claim that it’s impossible to change the minds of our friends on the right, but we mostly don’t have to: we only have to change a few.

There are genuine, effective near-term changes that are possible... but only if we all unilaterally drop the rhetoric and political theatre.

We should, however, put some focus on the near-term achievable policy changes that aren’t dependent on sweeping societal changes.

If we wait for sweeping societal changes, we’ll be waiting a long time. If, for instance, we put pressure to this administration to arrest straw purchasers and people who lie on the background check, that can be done immediately.

Don’t let the near-term good be sacrificed to the long-term perfect, especially since they aren’t mutually exclusive.

If Democrats want to send a message that they are serious about keeping guns out of the hands of people who should not have them, start enforcing that law and the law against straw purchases. It can be done with executive branch action only.

In the real world though... the Democrats won’t touch it. Pandering about gun violence is far too politically valuable to actually do anything about it, even when obvious changes have broad bipartisan support.