In this July 20, 2012, photo, President Barack Obama pauses as he speaks about the Aurora, Colo., shooting at an campaign event at the Harborside Event Center in Ft. Myers, Fla. Gun control advocates sputter at their own impotence. The National Rifle Association is politically ascendant. Obama pledges to safeguard the Second Amendment in its first official response to the deaths of at least 12 innocents in the mass shooting at the new Batman movie screening. Once, every highly publicized outbreak of gun violence produced strong calls from Democrats and a few Republicans for tougher controls on firearms. Now those pleas are muted, a political paradox that’s grown more pronounced in an era scarred by Columbine, Virginia Tech, the wounding of a congresswoman and now the shootings in a suburban movie theater where carnage is expected on-screen only. (AP Photo/Susan Walsh)
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