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 DONATE NOW Visit NRATV ||||| Activists from the Connecticut town where 26 people were gunned down in a mass shooting at an elementary school in December headed to Washington on Tuesday to lobby again for gun control, a trip that took on new urgency in the wake of the massacre in the capital that killed 13, including the gunman. 
 
 FILE - In this Friday, Dec. 14, 2012 file photo provided by the Newtown Bee, Connecticut State Police lead children from the Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn., following a mass shooting.... (Associated Press) 
 
 FILE - In a Friday, April 5, 2013 file photo, Newtown, Conn., resident Jennifer Killin wipes tears on the steps of Hartford, Conn., City Hall, during a rally to urge passage of federal legislation to... (Associated Press) 
 
 The trip by about 50 members of the Newtown Action Alliance was planned to mark roughly nine months since the Dec. 14 rampage, in which 20 children and six educators were shot to death, and it now also quickly follows Monday's killings at the Washington Navy Yard. The group will ask Congress to require background checks for gun buyers. 
 
 Members of the group focused their criticism on Congress, where an effort to enact new background checks fell short in the Senate in April. 
 
 "This is really what this is all about _ our broken political system," founder David Ackert told the Hearst Connecticut Media Group. 
 
 Carlos Soto, the brother of a teacher who was one of six educators killed in Newtown, criticized lawmakers for failing to impose tougher gun regulations since the shootings. 
 
 "It's been nine months and there's still no action on the federal level," he told WFSB-TV. "We're not gonna go away." 
 
 Several parents of children killed at the Sandy Hook Elementary School lobbied Congress earlier this year. The activists now hope lawmakers may be motivated to act now because the killings at the Navy Yard were close to Capitol Hill. 
 
 "It definitely brings back terrible feelings, and we know what the families are going through," Ackert said. "It exacerbates the reason we're going, and we're determined to get the politicians to stop looking the other way, now that it's come to their doorstep." ||||| Prominent Democrats are calling for Congress to take up gun control legislation it the wake of the Navy Yard shootings that left 12 people dead. 
 
 “This is one more event to add to the litany of massacres that occur when a deranged person or grievance killer is able to obtain multiple weapons ... and kill many people in a short amount of time," said Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.), one of several Democrats calling for Congress to take another look at gun control. 
 
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 Sen. Jay Rockefeller (D-W.Va.) echoed Feinstein's comments. 
 
 “We are becoming far too familiar with senseless, tragic violence ... and these repeated incidents demand our attention,” he said. 
 
 “When will enough be enough?” added Feinstein, who led the effort to implement gun control regulations in the wake of last year’s mass shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School. 
 
 That effort ended with a whimper, as the Senate failed to move forward on legislation to tighten background check laws on gun purchases in the face of stiff opposition from the National Rifle Association (NRA) and gun rights supporters. 
 
 Just last week, two Colorado state lawmakers were defeated in a recall election driven by gun rights groups. Their losses highlighted the continued strength of gun rights groups in the political world, even as gun control groups have sought to flex their muscles in elections. 
 
 Some lawmakers were critical of the NRA on Monday. 
 
 Rep. Steve Cohen (D-Tenn.) in a message on Twitter displayed a cartoon of a semiautomatic rifle etched with “NRA” in its side aimed at both the U.S. Capitol building and the Washington Monument. 
 
 Horror, sadness&insanity of tragic #NavyYardShooting, depicted by one of our nation's greatest #cartoonists, Bill Day pic.twitter.com/kCDptGUvxh 
 
 — Steve Cohen (@RepCohen) September 16, 2013 
 
 
 
 
 
 On its website, the NRA released a message Monday that states: “We grieve and pray for those who lost their lives and for those hurt at the Washington Navy Yard.” 
 
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 The Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence listed shootings in recent years in a supermarket parking lot, an army base, a movie theater, a temple, shopping malls, universities, high schools, elementary schools and now a naval facility. 
 
 The group's president, Dan Gross, said Congress should be held accountable for the latest example of mass gun violence. 
 
 “We do know that policies that present a real opportunity to save lives sit stalled in Congress, policies that could prevent many of the dozens of deaths that result every day from gun violence,” Gross said in a statement. 
 
 “As long as our leaders in Congress ignore the will of the people and do not listen to those voices, we will hold them accountable. We hope Congress will listen to the voice of the people and take up legislation that will create a safer America." 
 
 Former White House adviser David Axelrod questioned why Alexis was able to purchase a gun after having previous run-ins with law enforcement for gun-related issues. 
 
 Dismissed from military for gun incident, he nonetheless can buy another, and commits mass murder. Absolute madness. #howmanytimes? — David Axelrod (@davidaxelrod) September 17, 2013 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 Since 2009, more than 50 mass shootings have occurred, which amounted to more than one per month, according to a study by Mayors Against Illegal Guns. New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg founded the group. 
 
 But Rep. Steny Hoyer (Md.) on Tuesday said he doubted the violence at Navy Yard would lead to new gun laws. 
 
 
 
 The minority whip, a vocal proponent of tighter firearms controls, said Monday's shooting rampage would prompt another conversation about how to keep guns from the hands of violent people, but the fear of political retaliation from gun rights advocates would prevent Congress from taking action. 
 
 
 
 "I'm sure that it [the Navy Yard shooting] will renew the discussions about access to weapons that can be used to kill a lot of people quickly," Hoyer said during a breakfast at D.C.'s Mayflower Hotel sponsored by Politico and the Peter G. Peterson Foundation. 
 
 
 
 "We have seen, however, in Colorado just in the past weeks, two legislators who had the courage to vote for [gun control] legislation … were recalled in a special election," he added. "Now one can analyze who comes out to special elections, but it does not bode well for asking people to vote for legislation similar to that which went down in the Senate just a few months ago." 
 
 
 
 The Senate reference is to legislation, considered by the upper chamber earlier in the year, that would have expanded criminal and mental health background checks on potential gun buyers. Under current law, only federally licensed gun dealers are required to perform such screenings, creating a huge loophole in the private market. 
 
 
 
 The Senate bill, championed by President Obama, would have extended the screening mandate to many private sales. 
 
 
 
 The measure was defeated in April after attracting the support of 55 senators — five short of the number needed to defeat a GOP filibuster. The Republican-controlled House, meanwhile, is mostly opposed to new gun controls. 
 
 
 
 The accused shooter in Monday's Navy Yard shooting, Aaron Alexis, 34, was a former Navy reservist with a history of violence, gun infractions and mental illness. The Associate Press reported Tuesday that the Veterans Administration had been treating him for mental illness since August. 
 
 
 
 Alexis was killed by law enforcers after officials say he shot almost two dozen people in the sprawling Navy complex, killing at least 12. 
 
 
 
 It remains unclear where Alexis obtained the firearms he used in the shooting. 
 
 
 
 Rep. Mike Thompson (D-Calif.), who has sponsored the House version of the Senate's background check bill, said the tragedy should compel Congress to address the issue. 
 
 
 
 “We know there is no one law or set of laws that will stop every act of gun violence. But that cannot be used as an excuse to do nothing," Thompson said Tuesday in a statement. "Congress needs to act.” 
 
 
 
 — Mario Trujillo contributed 
 
 — This story was first posted at 8:17 a.m. and has been updated. 
 
 ||||| President Barack Obama on Monday stepped onto a podium and lamented the deaths of a senseless mass shooting — just as he did after Aurora, Colo., and Newtown, Conn. 
 
 This time, his remarks came as office workers scrambled for cover and police searched for suspects at the Washington Navy Yard, just a few miles from the White House. 
 
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 reset Obama remarks on shooting Witnesses on shooting, confusion Breaking reports on shooting 
 
 Obama again hinted at his view that Congress must act to to help prevent future massacres, but offered no specifics and stopped short of promising a new White House campaign on that front. 
 
 (PHOTOS: Shooting at Navy Yard) 
 
 ”We are confronting yet another mass shooting — and today, it happened on a military installation in our nation’s capital,” the president said, as he pressed forward with a speech on the five-year anniversary of the economic crisis. “Obviously, we’re going to be investigating thoroughly what happened, as we do so many of these shootings, sadly, that have happened, and do everything that we can to try to prevent them.” 
 
 The newest mass shooting, like earlier ones at Virginia Tech, Tucson, Aurora and Newtown, was carried out by a well-armed lone gunman, police said Monday night. 
 
 But comparisons between the attack last December at Sandy Hook Elementary and Monday’s violence in Washington present the White House and gun control advocates with a stark question and a grim reality: If the murder of 20 first graders in their Connecticut grade school wasn’t enough to pass a bill, how likely is it the deaths of 12 adults at a Navy base change the result? 
 
 The latest tragedy is all too fresh, but the politics are the same. Last April, a Senate filibuster effectively blocked the effort to expand background checks and ban the sale of assault weapons and large-capacity ammunition magazines. Even if it had passed, it seemed doomed in the GOP-led House. And since then, gun rights advocates have increased pressure on lawmakers, successfully recalling two Democratic Colorado state senators who supported gun control measures. 
 
 (Also on POLITICO: Dianne Feinstein: Congress ‘shirking’ duty on guns) 
 
 Tuesday, Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.), who sponsored the compromise background checks plan, said he wouldn’t bring it back up post-Navy Yard until he can get the support of five more senators. 
 
 Monday’s events left advocates calling for more action from the White House and Congress, with some arguing that the series of shootings was having a cumulative effect on the public even if the latest spree seemed unlikely to be as nationally searing as Sandy Hook. 
 
 “I think the country and indeed the president have reached the tipping point not because of one mass shooting but because of an aggregate drip, drip, drip of more and more mass shootings,” said Mark Glaze of Mayors Against Illegal Guns — a group New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg formed to do battle with the National Rifle Association over the issue. “Every time this happens, it throws additional fuel on a fire already blazing pretty high.” 
 
 Dan Gross of the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence said that if people thought Newtown itself would be so transformative that it would vault gun legislation into law, they were mistaken. 
 
 (Also on POLITICO: Mark Kelly: ‘Gabby and I have been there’) 
 
 “No one tragedy — no matter how horrible — is going to be enough to create the sustained public will that’s necessary to create change on this issue,” he said. 
 
 White House Press Secretary Jay Carney said during a briefing Monday afternoon that it was too soon to talk about specific legislative responses while the facts of what happened at the Navy Yard were still being sorted out. 
 
 “It would be inappropriate to try to put in context something about which we have so few facts,” Carney said, while reiterating Obama’s support for “common-sense measures” to cut down on gun violence. “It is far too early to say anything about who did this and the broader meaning of it.” 
 
 After the White House push for background checks died in the Senate in April, Vice President Joe Biden told religious and law enforcement groups that he and Obama would travel the country to stump for gun control measures. But that effort never materialized and Senate Judiciary Chairman Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) said this summer that the legislation would not come up again this year. 
 
 (Also on POLITICO: Navy Yard shooting was in a very secure area) 
 
 Gun control advocates said they hope the White House and the president won’t hesitate for long before diving back into the legislative battle. 
 
 “I think it’s appropriate for the White House to wait until we know what happened, but at some point soon we will time to think hard about whether some senators who voted against what 90 percent of the public wants — expanded background checks — have some explaining to do,” Glaze said. 
 
 “While this issue is so prominent and in front of the American public, it is an appropriate time to make another push,” Gross said. 
 
 (Also on POLITICO: In tragedy’s wake, Obama finds tone a challenge) 
 
 Gross noted that in the 1990s, the Brady Bill “took six votes, over seven years and three Congresses to pass.” 
 
 Despite the recent spate of mass shootings, the public does not seem as exercised about the issue as it was in the 1990s when those incidents took place against a backdrop of widespread concern about violent crime. Murder rates have dropped by more than half in many parts of the country. 
 
 “From the 70s through the early 90s, the crime rate was going up steadily and the feeling was this is inexorable and is only going to get worse,” said Jim Kessler of the Democratic centrist group Third Way. “It was the top of mind issue. Mike Dukakis arguably lost the presidential election on the basis of how he handled one, single criminal case. That’d be unimaginable today.”
– Yesterday's mass shooting at the Navy Yard has brought the issue of tougher gun laws back into DC's conversation, but Josh Gerstein at Politico sums up the problem for advocates with a basic question: "If the murder of 20 first-graders in their Connecticut grade school wasn’t enough to pass a bill, how likely is it the deaths of 12 adults at a Navy base change the result?" The political reality hasn't changed since Newtown, he notes: Just ask the two legislators in Colorado who got the boot in a recall election organized by gun rights' groups. Still, some prominent Democrats are speaking out, reports the Hill. “When will enough be enough?” asked Dianne Feinstein. “Congress must stop shirking its responsibility and resume a thoughtful debate on gun violence in this country." But perhaps the most poignant plea is from Dr. Janis Orlowski of the Washington Medical Center, which treated some of yesterday's victims. From MSNBC: "There's something wrong here when we have these multiple shootings, these multiple injuries," she said. "We have to work together to get rid of it. I'd like you to put my trauma center out of business. I really would. I would like to not be an expert on gunshots and not to be an expert on this. We are. We do it well. But quite frankly, I'd rather (my surgeons) be doing their surgery on other things." As it did in the immediate aftermath of Newtown, the NRA is keeping a low profile, offering its condolences to the victims in a website message. Meanwhile, activists from Newtown were headed to Capitol Hill today as part of a previously scheduled trip to mark the nine-month anniversary of the shootings with a call for tougher background checks, notes AP.