Why do we only talk about gun violence in the immediate aftermath of a mass killing? If we want to change the laws in the US we have to develop a longer attention span. 

We had a fantastic opportunity to talk about meaningful ways to change the laws in the faceoff between Bernie Sanders and Hillary Clinton. It's fairly obvious that at least at one point in his political career Sanders was backed by the NRA. His excuse that he represented a rural state while true was nonsense. He was running for President, of all the states, including states where people die from gun violence every day. Clinton didn't want to push it, but that doesn't mean voters couldn't have made it an issue. We totally could have.

We make the mistake of falling for candidates as if they were sports teams, and not insisting that they represent our interests. We think voting for a person is like rooting for the Warriors or Cavaliers in the NBA Finals. Politics is good sport, for sure -- but the political decisions we make, or don't make, can result in 50 people dead on a Saturday night in an Orlando night club. The bullets are real, as is the blood.

We will never create the change so many say they want until we can sustain the feeling and carry it through to Election Day. 

The most effective thing we could do is to organize to end the careers of reps who are funded by the NRA. Make it impossible, at least in some states, for them to take their money. We don't need to win everywhere, just in enough places to pass the laws we need to at least slow the process by which potential mass murderers get weapons of mass murder.

 There are ways to do this, it's a relatively easy thing to do, it just requires a sustained commitment.