I guess the problem of gun violence in America was solved to everyone's satisfaction over the past 12 months, because Obama (who spent a lengthy portion of his SOTU speech a year ago with a passionate appeal for meaningful gun control legislation) barely mentioned the issue last week.

Evidently the tragedy in Newtown, Connecticut did indeed turn out to be the watershed event that shocked America into taking draconian measures to make it nearly impossible for anything like that to ever happen again.