Francis Wilkinson, Columnist

The Redemption of the Victims of Sandy Hook

Activists' persistence after the 2012 gun massacre has helped sustain the Parkland movement.

The toll since Dec. 14, 2012.

Photographer: Saul Loeb/AFP/Getty Images
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The Sandy Hook massacre was a milestone in U.S. history. But it's unlikely, in the end, to be the social and political marker that many had first assumed.

The 2012 murder of 26 young children and teachers in their Newtown, Connecticut, classrooms was succeeded by purposeful inaction in Washington. The Senate contemplated a rational, if arguably tangential, effort to require background checks for all gun purchases, a proposal supported by more than 80 percent of Americans.