As someone in the UK, I find some of the US attitudes utterly baffling. Comments such as Marco Rubio's: "now isn't the time to talk about gun control", seem completely bizarre. It really, really is...

However, I accept that the historical and cultural norms on this issue are very different to those of Europeans.

One thing I don't understand at all though, and perhaps someone could enlighten me, why are the NRA seemingly so extremely powerful?