It is cowardice, of a sort, but understandable.  Who do we have out there in the public eye willing to sacrifice all for this issue, when there are so many others?  Barack Obama has made a career out of knowing when to punt on issues that, while he probably knows are very important, also knows will make it impossible for him to move forward on other issues.  Political capital has limits.  And we live in an age where real leaders willing to risk everything frankly don't even exist.  I say that while looking the mirror, by the way.

So when that false summit appeared, the democrats mapped it, photographed it, and announced they were heading that way.  The false summit is the assault weapons ban.

Anyone who really knows anything about gun violence knows the real culprit in the US is the handgun.  The easily concealed weapon of choice for criminals, and a quick extension of ones' anger.  It lends itself very well to explosive impulses, the ultimate release of all pent-up frustration and rage.

Since 1962, more than one million Americans have died in firearm homicides, suicides, and unintentional shootings. Handguns were used in more than 650,000 of these fatal shootings.⁷

On the average, if someone gets shot and killed, four out of five times it will be with a handgun. In 1997, for example, handguns were used in 79.4 percent of all firearm homicides.¹⁰ From 1990 to 1997, handguns were used in a majority (55.6 percent) of all homicides; that is, they were used in murder more than all other weapons combined.¹¹

Of all firearm-related crime, 86 percent involved handguns.⁵

In 1997 there were 15,690 homicides.

• Of these, 8,503 were committed with handguns.
  
• Among handgun homicides, only 193 (2.3 percent) were classified as justifiable homicides by civilians.²³
  

For every time in 1997 that a civilian used a handgun to kill in self-defense, 43 people lost their lives in handgun homicides alone.²⁴