They think they understand why their opponents are so passionate about defeating gun control, but they never think to wonder why some of their seeming allies put so little effort into passing it. My Washington Post column offers an answer to the question they’re not asking.

In October 2017, right after the deadliest mass shooting in U.S. history had taken place in Las Vegas, Gallup found that 60 percent of Americans wanted gun laws to “be made more strict.” But it also found that 58 percent of them thought that if new gun controls were passed, they would have little or no effect on mass shootings.