US tragedies from guns have often – but not always – spurred political responses

Ade Osadolor-Hernandez of Students Demand Action speaks at a rally outside the U.S. Capitol in May 2022. Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images

The nationwide call for stronger gun laws in the aftermath of mass shootings in Buffalo, Uvalde and the over 200 other places where such tragedies took place so far in 2022 is understandable.

It’s also predictable. Whether efforts to pass new federal or state laws to raise the minimum age for buying semiautomatic rifles, expand background checks and similar measures succeed or fail this time, they will follow a pattern in American politics that traces back more than a century.