Why Obama's drive for gun reforms never stood a chance
Political anxiety, Republican resistance and the clout of NRA crushes drive for tougher controls
US President Barack Obama, his face set with rage, stood with families from Newtown and shooting victim Gabrielle Giffords and asked how a measure to expand background checks for gun buyers - one supported by an overwhelming majority of Americans and a bipartisan majority of the Senate - had slipped away.
He asked: "The American people are trying to figure out, how can something have 90 per cent support and yet not happen?"
The answer: the measure never really had a chance.
In the nearly 10 years since the expiration of the assault weapons ban, even modest gun safety legislation has proved impossible to advance on Capitol Hill, where the momentum has been in the other direction with lawmakers pushing various expansions of gun rights.
Former politician Giffords suffered head wounds in a shooting near Tucson, Arizona, in January 2011. The shootings in Newtown, Connecticut, last year, the tearful pleas of the parents of slain children and an aggressive push by the president could not turn the tide.
The level of emotion over the issue was evident on Wednesday when three startling words rang out in the US Senate: "Shame on you!"