Saturday’s shooting in Tucson has led gun control advocates to begin drafting bills to strenghten gun control laws. Meanwhile, gun sales have been up since the shooting. While the issue of gun control tends to come to the fore following tragedies of this sort, few actually think that any real legislative change will come in the wake of the shooting.

The New York Times’ Los Angeles bureau chief, Adam Nagourney is in Tucson, where he describes a culture that is very gun-friendly.