CARBONDALE, Ill. (WSIL) -- As the nation mourns victims of another mass shooting lawmakers are once again rejuvenating calls for gun legislation, calls that will fall on deaf ears according to one political analyst.
On Tuesday, an 18-year old gunman entered Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas killing 19 students and two teachers according to police.
The killings prompted an emotional speech from U.S. Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Connecticut) in the shooting's wake.
"What are we doing?" Murphy asked. "Just days after a shooter walked into a grocery store to gun down African-American patrons, we have another Sandy Hook on our hands."
John Shaw, director of the Paul Simon Public Policy Institute at SIU-Carbondale, isn't surprised that lawmakers, mostly Democrats, are calling for more action on gun legislation.
Shaw says Democrats can move forward in one of two ways: they can bring a pair of house bills passed last year up for a vote or they can cobble together a more narrow, limited compromise with mental health provisions and stricter background checks.
No matter which path Democrats take, Shaw believes efforts will ultimately be stalled.
"If past is prologue that response will go for several weeks and then will ultimately end with a failed negotiation and then an attempt to pass symbolic legislation that will probably fail and then we'll be back to square one," Shaw said.
House lawmakers passed The ​​Enhanced Background Checks Act of 2021 and the Bipartisan Background Checks Act of 2021. Both of those bills stalled in the U.S. Senate.
The group Education Week has been mass shootings since 2018. This year there have been 27 school shootings nationwide resulting in 27 deaths. 21 of those deaths were in Uvalde, according to Education Week.
The shooting in Uvalde is the deadliest school shooting since the 2012 massacre at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut. That shooting left 26 people dead, including 20 children.