Shootings Unlikely to Trigger Fresh Debate

Gun control advocate says "politicians are afraid to talk about" the issue.

ByABC News
February 8, 2008, 5:56 PM

Feb. 8, 2008— -- In the last week alone, there have been at least six incidents in which three or more people were gunned down in cold blood, leaving behind outrage, sadness and unanswered questions as to why the shooters went on their rampages.

Prosecutors charged a Baltimore teen with fatally shooting his parents and two brothers. An unidentified gunman, who is still on the run, shot five women dead in a shopping mall in a Chicago suburb.

Three people were murdered in a shooting spree at a suburban Maryland pizza restaurant. In Los Angeles, police say a man fatally shot three family members and a police officer before authorities killed him.

Thursday night, a city hall became a horrific shooting gallery, and Friday, police say a woman in Louisiana walked into a vocational school's classroom and shot two fellow students before taking her own life.

In all these cases, people died at the hands of shooters using guns that were readily available, either in stores or on the black market.

Few expect this rash of fatal shootings to necessarily reopen the debate over gun control in the United States. Even those who support more restrictions on guns admit they have been losing ground.

"Politicians are more concerned with having a little red tape that makes it harder for someone to get a gun than they are about the yellow police tape that shows up at these crime scenes," Paul Helmke, president of the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence, told ABC News.

"Almost universally, regardless of party, regardless of ideology, regardless of which office they're running for, the politicians are afraid to talk about it," he said.

Citing a low number of restrictions on gun purchases, weak enforcement of gun dealers on the street and the lapsed assault weapons ban, Helmke said, "In this country we make it very easy for dangerous people to get guns. If you're angry, if you're depressed, if you're upset with your boss, if you're upset with your spouse, you can probably find a gun within a day."