By CNN's Jack Cafferty:
The tragic shootings that killed six at a Sikh temple in Milwaukee yesterday come just over two weeks after that massacre in a Colorado movie theater.
And once again, it's sure to revive the debate over gun control.
It seems each time something like this happens, a great hue and cry for stricter gun laws goes up, and dies down just as quickly.
Coincidentally before yesterday's violence a group of mayors released an ad demanding that President Obama and Mitt Romney give us "a plan" when it comes to gun control.
The ad features three survivors from the 2011 Tucson, Arizona, shooting that killed six and wounded 13 others - including former Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords.
But the reality is, the issue of guns is a political hot potato that no politician, Democrat or Republican, wants to touch - especially in an election year.
There's a reason: a lot of Americans want it that way.
In the aftermath of last month's Colorado shootings, background checks for people wanting to buy guns spiked more than 40% in that state.
Meanwhile a Pew Research Poll taken about a week after the Colorado shootings found very little change in Americans' attitudes toward gun control.
Pollsters say other recent major deadly shootings - including those in Tucson last year and at Virginia Tech in 2007 - had little effect on public opinion about gun laws.
The Pew Poll also found about two-thirds of those polled say shootings like the one in Colorado are just the isolated acts of troubled individuals.
Only about a quarter say shootings like this reflect broader problems in American society.
Here’s my question to you: What will it take for gun control laws to change?
Interested to know which ones made it on air?
Vinny in Connecticut:
Here you go again, Jack, along with the anti-2nd amendment people. Chicago, which has some of the strictest gun laws in the nation, is the 'murder capital of the U.S.' Gangs, madmen, and other criminals don't obey the laws and will always manage to get guns. Since the police can't be everywhere all the time, it's up to us citizens to protect ourselves from these murderers.
Linda:
Wrong question. The correct question (and maybe more achievable) is: How can we teach men, particularly white men age 20-40, to deal with failure better? One psychologist after the Colorado shooting pointed out that many mass murderers are inept at dealing with failure in their lives.
Robert in Florida:
Jack, Changing gun control laws will not change psychopathic behavior. We have speeding laws and people still speed, we have drunk driving laws and people still drink and drive. We’re always trying to find something or someone else to blame instead of the perpetrator of the crime. The gun control fanatics need to look at the facts. The cities with the toughest gun control laws have the highest violent crime rates. The old saying stands true today. “If you make guns illegal only the bad guys will have them”.
D.P.:
It starts with the NRA. Guns are big business, so that's where the money and power is coming from. The NRA won't say it publicly, but the NRA and the gun dealers have a vested interest in this escalation. They benefit not only from the sale of guns that end up in criminals’ hands, but now ordinary citizens have reason to buy more guns.
Peter:
The one thing that will change the laws is when (not if) a couple of politcians' kids or grandkids get killed. I hope it never happens but that's what it will take.
Michael:
Courage.