WASHINGTON, D.C., Jan 30 (DPI) — Despite widespread pressure to act, American lawmakers — and a deeply divided public — are still sorting out what action to take on further gun-control measures.

By this week the seemingly intractable gun issue had already taken a back seat to immigration reform, which the Senate suddenly managed to find a consensus on.

But the gun debate has continued to rage. Amid fanfare last week, California Sen. Dianne Feinstein introduced a bill that would once again ban military-style rifles, just as The Wall Street Journal and other news outlets reported that rifles represent less than 3% of all guns used in homicides, and that users of handguns by far do the most killing.

http://www.ctmirror.org/story/18819/most-connecticut-killings-are-handguns-not-assault-weapons

Meanwhile, a surprising number of Democrats on Capitol Hill, even Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid of Nevada, hesitated in bringing full support for more federal gun laws, wary of retribution from voters. And the National Rifle Association, clumsy in articulating its views in the wake of Sandy Hook Elementary School massacre in Newtown, Ct., had done little to strengthen the position among Main Street supporters of the Second Amendment.

Finally, The New York Times today reported on one of nation’s biggest problems: Urban gun violence, most notably in Chicago, where the gun laws are among the strictest in the country.

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/01/30/us/strict-chicago-gun-laws-cant-stem-fatal-shots.html?hpw

Many reader comments following that article mocked the suggestion that tougher gun laws in adjoining states would reduce gun violence in Chicago.

Comment posted 3:19pm 1/30: “So, expanding ineffective, unconstitutional gun restrictions that favor criminals having guns and criminalize law abiding citizens for having guns will somehow magically reduce gun violence? How is this logical in any capacity?”

Other readers were harshly critical of news outlets ignoring the habitual and cultural factors contributing to Chicago’s murder rate, in which more than 40 people have been killed by gun violence in January 2013 alone. “Of course it is politically incorrect to acknowledge all of this,” wrote one.