After the Mass Shooting in Las Vegas — Finding Common Ground on Gun Control

Abstract

We’ve seen so many mass shootings — in theaters, in churches, in nightclubs, in schools — that each new episode of the mass slaughter of Americans induces a weary sense of déjà vu.1,2 But some realities of the recent mass shooting in Las Vegas, the largest in modern history, might help produce action, rather than the paralysis we’ve seen for so many years. What’s different this time is the unprecedented magnitude of the killing. It appears that a single, heavily armed man was able to kill at least 58 people and wound nearly 500 more. He was untrained and unskilled .