It wouldn’t even be that hard to accomplish. “You have to create a net that will weed out people who are likely to commit acts of gun violence,” says Josh Horwitz, the executive director of the Coalition to Stop Gun Violence.

It would require universal background checks, for sure, with criteria built around past acts of violence, commitments to mental health facilities, and addiction to drugs and alcohol, among other things. California, in fact, has such criteria, which is why Matthew Warren had such difficulty getting a gun. (You would also have to crack down on illegal gun sales.)

But it does require a political will that the country simply doesn’t have. In recent months, it’s been the hard-line gun owners who’ve been galvanized in defeating an effort to institute national background checks in April, openly taking guns into Starbucks — forcing Howard Schultz, the chairman and chief executive, to issue a plea that they stop — and, most recently, successfully recalling two Colorado state legislators who had supported tougher gun laws. After Newtown, Cerberus announced it would sell Freedom Group. Nine months later, there has been no sale, and one wonders whether there ever will be. (A Cerberus spokesman said a sale was still the plan.)

When he spoke on Sunday, the president seemed to almost seethe with frustration. But he also noted that the politics were “difficult.” And though he said that we should never view mass shootings as “the new normal,” he also made it clear that he won’t lead the charge. There’s no political upside in trying to keep guns out of the wrong hands.

Earlier on Sunday, Senator Joe Manchin, the Democrat from West Virginia who had courageously led the effort for universal background checks back in April, was asked on “Face the Nation” on CBS if he were willing to give it another try.

“I’m not going to go out there and just beat the drum for the sake of beating the drum,” he replied.

Meanwhile, we nervously await the next mass shooting, knowing with a painful certainty that it will come. And that it could likely have been prevented, if only we had the will.