by KD Zuppinger

Created on: April 11, 2009   Last Updated: April 13, 2009

As of the date of this article there has been fifty-seven mass murders in the U.S. Seven of those deaths were of law enforcement officers on routine assignments.

Another headline homicide involving guns occurred at a trailer park in the state of Washington where a father apparently shot and killed his five children before killing himself.

It has also been noted that the drug cartel violence south of the border in Mexico is being fueled by illegal gun sales from the United States.

Historically the Democratic Party has been seen as more willing to pass laws in favor of gun control. During the Clinton administration a law banning assault weapons was passed in 1994. The law lasted for ten years before it was allowed to expire in 2004 under the Republican administration of George W. Bush.

With new Democratic leadership in both the White House and Congress coupled with the current uptick in gun violence the climate might seem ripe for tighter gun laws. However, this appears not to be the case.

Recently, when two top-level officials from the Obama administration, Attorney General Eric Holder and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, came out in support of reinstating the ban on assault weapons they were rebuff by the White House.

Why? According to a recent report, the National Rifle Association (NRA) contributed twenty percent of its $1.2 million dollars in political donations to the Democrats in the 2008 elections - more than twice the amount it donated in 2002.

And once the NRA got wind that the ban on assault weapons was being reconsidered it sent out action alerts to its members and bombarded calls to its new friends on Capitol Hill.

In return, sixty-five Democrats in the Congress sent a letter to Attorney General Holder asking him to back down on the issue.

NRA executive vice-president Wayne LaPierre is on record as saying that the Democratic leaders have "learned their lesson" after having lost the Congress for enacted the ban in 1994.

If we break down the numbers twenty percent of $1.2 million dollars comes to $240,000. All 435 House Seats were up for grabs in 2008, as well as 35 seats in the Senate. If the money that the Democratic Party received was split evenly to either defend or take over a seat from a Republican that would amount to about $510.00 per candidate.

For a weeks pay for most average Americans the Democratic Party now seems willing to look the other way where any sensible measure of gun control is concerned.

One of the reasons the gunman in Pennsylvania gave

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