In the days following the shooting in Aurora, a bipartisan consensus took hold that gun control can’t be achieved in the current political climate. The National Rifle Association is too powerful, and passing another law probably wouldn’t do much anyway to stop the mass shootings that have sadly become part of the American scene. The grassroots energy that drove the passage of the Brady bill and an assault-weapons ban in 1993 has been replaced by a sense of resignation that little can be done beyond grieving for the victims and their families.