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'A bad day for ... hope': Another school shooting. More dead kids. Why gun control advocates see no end in sight

Gun control advocates aren't optimistic Congress will move to curb gun access despite the slaughter in Uvalde, Texas. The reason? Previous mass shootings such as Sandy Hook didn't spur much action.

  • A day after the Uvalde school shooting, lawmakers were angry but not hopeful about gun legislation.
  • Lawmakers who back gun control said there was little reason for optimism due to past defeats.
  • New gun control laws went nowhere after Sandy Hook, Parkland and other mass shootings.

America has been here before: Sandy Hook. Charleston. Orlando. Parkland. El Paso. Buffalo. Many others.

Unspeakable carnage followed by spasms of charged rhetoric on Capitol Hill vowing change: weapons bans, background checks, red flags for mental health cases, ammunition magazine restrictions, gun sale loopholes.

Then ... nothing.

Echoing past tragedies, Americans condemn the killer of 19 elementary school children and two teachers and grieve with the families in Uvalde, Texas, but there's no sense of optimism that this is the mass slaying that will spur tough gun control laws.

Archbishop of the Archdioceses of San Antonio Gustavo Garcia-Siller prays with Catherine Spurgers, 15, of Uvalde, Texas, outside Sacred Heart Church on May 24.

"I'm done. They … failed our kids again, OK? I'm done. I've had it," a tearful Fred Guttenberg told MSNBC. His daughter Jaime was one of 14 students killed in 2018 at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High school in Parkland, Florida. Three staff members also died.

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