On the one year anniversary of Parkland, Florida's Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School gun massacre, so many will never see Valentine's Day in the same way. Fourteen students died at the hands of a former student who had access to a semi-automatic assault rifle. While the massacre sparked a national movement -- March For Our Lives -- that has mobilized millions in the fight for gun safety laws, the public has less of a sense of urgency to put such laws into place. Moreover, almost 1,200 children have lost their lives to gun violence in the year since Parlkand, but in comes in small bursts, ones, twos and threes, so it's not noticed as much.
House Democrats have passed two bills out of the Judiciary Committee that would expand background checks (something an overwhelming majority of Americans want) to gun shows, the internet and other private transactions. The bills go to the floor of the House for a vote where they are expected to pass along party lines, but face strong opposition from the Senate Rethuglican majority, which is a wholly-owned subsidiary of the National
(photo: Gary Rothstein/UPI)
