What will 2013 bring?

The homicide rate in the United States is seven times higher than that in other industrialized nations, a phenomenon largely explained by the widespread and easy availability of guns. There were 12 000 gun related homicides in 2008. By comparison, in the UK in 2008-09, there were 39 firearm related deaths (www.economist.com/blogs/lexington/2012/12/gun-control). Mass shootings occur several times every year in the US, and they are often followed by weak and short lived calls for stricter gun control. The tragic events in Newtown, Connecticut last month, however, were different. Most of …