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1) I see it noted in some reports that the White House isn't giving details on President Obama's plan for new gun control legislation.
Why should they? Why should he even have one? That's not his job, and it's not even within his remit. Writing legislation is Congress's job. President Obama's job is to lead, sure, but he's done that by saying that something needs to be done. After that it's pretty much his job to sign or not sign, because he's a president, not an absolute monarch.
2) I have also noted gun advocates pointing out that it was apparently the killer's mother, not the killer, who bought the assault rifle in question.
Setting aside the issue of you're still making assault rifles readily available to the public, weapons that have no legitimate actual use, that's still a failure in your gun legislation.
Obviously America isn't going to get anywhere near Australia's wonderfully, eminently sane gun laws, but here's one they could and should pick up: If you have a gun, that thing should be secured, where no-one who isn't the registered, licensed owner is going to be able to grab it for a murder spree.
Legal ownership of assault rifles in Australia is more-or-less restricted to "the Army", but if you have any gun at all, you're required to keep that locked up in an approved gun safe.
Because it's true, background checks and mental health provisions won't help if the crazy person can just pick up someone else's gun. That's why they shouldn't be able to do that.
It's much easier to keep guns out of murderous psychos' hands if the guns are a) much, much rarer anyway and b) all kept locked up.
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