WASHINGTON — The question surfaces each time a mass murder unfolds: Will this one change the political calculus in Washington against tougher gun control?

Insurance agent/gun dealer Aaron Merchant shoulders an M-16 rifle equipped with a silencer at his new shop, Merchant Firearms, southwest of Chandler Boulevard and 48th Street in Ahwatukee Foothills.

Insurance agent/gun dealer Aaron Merchant shoulders an M-16 rifle equipped with a silencer at his new shop, Merchant Firearms, southwest of Chandler Boulevard and 48th Street in Ahwatukee Foothills.

They look like Uzis, Colts or Walthers, but they shoot plastic pellets at about one-third the velocity of a paint-ball splat.

NEWTOWN, Conn. — A man opened fire Friday inside the Connecticut elementary school where his mother worked as a teacher, killing 26 people, including 20 children, as youngsters cowered in their classrooms and trembled helplessly to the sound of gunfire reverberating through the building.

NEWTOWN, Conn. — A man opened fire Friday inside the Connecticut elementary school where his mother worked as a teacher, killing 26 people, including 20 children, as youngsters cowered in their classrooms and trembled helplessly to the sound of gunfire reverberating through the building.