The NRA's hold on Washington is a fact. Best to think and act locally and ignore our dysfunctional central government.

Another benefit of Federalism, the sharing of powers between States and Central Government invented by our forefathers when drafting the Constitution, is how Connecticut dealt with the Sandy Hook murder of children and teachers. The second amendment reads as follows:

A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free state, the right of the people to keep and bear arms, shall not be infringed. 

I see the word regulated here. The history of the National Rifle Association (NRA) started after our Civil War by those who observed a general and abject lack of education on the safe use of arms. Currently the NRA seems to have been taken over by the crazies, best exemplified by its President Wayne Lapierre, it originally tried to tame. The NRA's hold on Washington is a fact. The only solution against Washington with regard to gun laws is to think and act locally and ignore, as with so much, our dysfunctional central government.

And regionally as best exemplified by Rhode Island, Connecticut, New York and New Jersey sharing gun safety data because the NRA has been so effective at blocking any attempt of developing a national one in Washington.