None of these ideas strike me as out of the mainstream. None would impact the ability of law-abiding citizens to buy firearms and participate in gun-related hunting, recreation, or self-defense. And while it may be a debatable point about the extent to which any or all of these ideas would have changed the circumstances or outcomes of any of the horrifying massacres in our recent history, if the ideas are reasonable and don’t limit legitimate activities, then why not consider them? Under what circumstance would you need more than 10 rounds of ammunition in a clip?

And yes, we need to look all the contributing factors to violence in our society, including mental health interventions and violent media. But recently 11,000 Americans lost their lives in gun-related deaths in a year. During the same period in Japan, 11 died. And last time I looked, they play videogames too.

Unless the GOP comes out with a proactive plan that has some appearance of responding to recent events, then it continues to play defense and digs deeper the hole it has been digging for itself in recent years. On issues where the physics are moving irrevocably forward, like immigration, gay rights, and guns, the Republican Party continues to look backward. And backward is a sure path toward irrelevance.