ALAN DERSHOWITZ: I don’t think it’s the NRA power. I think it’s people like us, not the two of us, but Americans who care about guns aren’t doing enough to make our case to the public.

Because we think it’s their issue. We’ve given that issue over to them because they have lobbyists they pay money. But in the end, the people determine the outcome. And it’s wrong, and it’s racist and it’s bigoted to say that guns are quintessentially American. They may represent a part of America, but my grandparents who came over from poland and live in Brooklyn, New York, are just as much Americans –people who came over from Ireland, people who came over from Italy — we’re just as much Americans. We live on the coast and we have a right to define the America we want to live in and we have the obligation to win politically, to vote for people to put gun control as a high priority.

They put it as a number one priority. We who favor gun control put it as a 16th or 17th priority. So it’s our fault, not the NRA’s fault.