In about 23 years, maybe we'll have gun control in the US

Around when I first moved to DC, 1987, I thought that there was a strong likelihood of the creation of a national health insurance program, something like the Affordable Care Act, which passed in 2010.

It wasn't because I thought policymakers were motivated by improving the state of the nation's health but because in an increasingly globalized economy, large US companies were at a disadvantage compared to their competitors elsewhere, because they provided health insurance to their employees, while in other countries (if they have insurance) that cost is borne by the national government.

Chrysler had gone through bankruptcy, in part because of their health insurance obligations, but also for many other reasons.  And many steel companies had by that time gone out of business as well, for similar economic reasons.  And we were a couple years out from Caterpillar reducing health and wage benefits.

And there were lots of articles and editorials about the health insurance crisis.  I remember one by Joesph Califano, who was on the Chrysler board of directors, and he had been US Secretary of Health, Education and Welfare during the Carter Administration.

It didn't happen then, but took 23 years later, and in a final form that is still not optimal.

In the meantime, wrt guns, roughly 33,000 people die each year in shootings of various sorts (not just murders, also accidents and suicides), and so far in 2015, there's been at least one major shooting--defined as at least four people being shot in one incident--every day.

Instead of focusing on gun control, theaters, stadiums, arenas, and even churches are deploying security and search protocols.

See "The blasé acceptance that you might get shot is a fact of American life" and "Gun control is political: So is refusing to address the politics of gun violence" from The Guardian and Courtland Milloy's recent column, "We've ignored a reason for homicides of blacks," in the Washington Post.

Outside of war zones, the US is perhaps the most dangerous country in the world as it relates to death from violence.