Unthinkable Violence Renews Calls for Stricter Gun Control

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Byline: Sari Horwitz and Peter Finn The Washington Post

The 20-year-old gunman who opened fire in a Connecticut elementary school Friday morning carried the kind of semiautomatic weapons that have become the bloody hallmark of the American gun massacre -- and perpetual exhibits in the cyclical and never resolved debate about gun control that follows every similar killing spree.

The killing of 20 children in their school prompted fresh and sometimes anguished calls to toughen the country's gun laws. But the history of previous shootings suggests that the hard politics of the issue always trumps the grief of the moment.

"As we mourn, we must sound a call for our leaders to stand up and do what is right," said …