The debate over gun control has been inescapable since last December, when Adam Lanza killed 20 first-graders and six adults at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn., before taking his own life in one of the nation's most horrific mass shootings. There have been marches and protests, Super Bowl advertisements, emotional and contentious congressional and state hearings and a new, tough gun-control law in New York state. Polls show broad bipartisan public support for expanding background checks to include private gun purchases, although support is weaker and more polarized for a ban on assault-style weapons and large-capacity ammunition magazines. Yet momentum may be fading in Congress for passage of any new gun-control legislation as members grapple with the federal government's looming debt limit and this month's automatic budget cuts.

Barbara Mantel is a freelance writer in New York City whose work has appeared in The New York Times, the Journal of Child and Adolescent Psychopharmacology and Mamm Magazine. She is a former correspondent and senior producer for National Public Radio and has won several journalism awards, including the National Press Club's Best Consumer Journalism Award and Lincoln University's Unity Award. She holds a B.A. in history and economics from the University of Virginia and an M.A. in economics from Northwestern University.