With the National Rifle Association now weaker than it has been in decades, progress is possible—if politicians are willing to seize the time.
Twenty-five years ago tomorrow—on April 20, 1999—two 12th-grade students at Columbine High School in Littleton, Colorado, armed with semiautomatic rifles and pistols murdered 12 students and one teacher, and injured another 21 people. The Columbine massacre triggered a national debate on gun violence. But the epidemic of gun violence has continued; in fact, it has escalated. Public opinion remains strongly in favor of stricter laws, but politicians, cowed by the National Rifle Association, have failed to do their job of protecting Americans from this plague.
There had been other mass…