The vast majority of Americans — about nine in 10 — support reasonable, common-sense gun regulations. The numbers are only slightly lower among gun owners and members of the National Rifle Association. And yet, year after year, lawmakers in Congress and in statehouses across the country, all beholden to the gun lobby, act as if the opposite were true.

They reject even mild, sensible laws — such as background checks and bans on gun ownership by domestic abusers or the mentally ill — that would help reduce the country’s staggering toll of gun violence.

Meanwhile, they pass pro-gun measures, even in the face of strong public opposition. In September, Missouri legislators overrode the governor’s veto to allow people to carry concealed weapons in public — no permit, no background check, no training — ignoring the wishes of 86 percent of state voters and the pleas of many law enforcement organizations.

Missouri had already loosened its gun laws in 2007, by eliminating the requirement that handgun purchasers get a permit by passing a background check. In the next six years, the state’s gun homicide rate rose by 18 percent and was almost 50 percent higher than the national average. It’s difficult to know how much of that increase was the result of the change in the law. But since 2007, guns purchased in Missouri have made up a dramatically higher portion of the guns used in crimes and confiscated by the police.