There was a lot of discussion two weeks ago about the appropriateness of "politicizing a tragedy". The best post on the subject was by Max Read at Gawker noting that tragedies exist in the context of legal rules that are the result of politics, and therefore any tragedy is already political.
This is true in the grand sense, people's thinking on gun laws should and will be influenced by events like these. But it's important to note that in the narrow sense this tragedy won't really be politicized. Sen. Frank Lautenberg, (D-New Jersey), and Rep. Carolyn McCarthy, (D-New York) have unveiled a bill to regulate online sales of ammunition, but it is unlikely that this sort of legislation will succeed. Likewise, we won't see too many Democrats attacking incumbent Republicans over their failure to support assault weapons bans or incumbent Democrats being challenged by party members over their failure to be tougher on gun legislation.
In the end the tragedy won't really be politicized.
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