EDITOR’S NOTE: Each week we cross-post an excerpt from Katrina vanden Heuvel’s column at the WashingtonPost.com. Read the full text of Katrina’s column here.

The ongoing, seemingly inescapable gun violence crisis in the United States, most recently manifested in Saturday’s horrific massacre in Buffalo, poses a dire threat to our fragile democracy. And our government’s lack of response to it constitutes a major crisis in itself.

The Buffalo attack was the deadliest US mass shooting thus far in 2022, and the 198th since January. (The 199th happened Sunday in Southern California.) Yet, President Biden’s statements afterward made no mention of gun policy aimed at preventing these horrors. It was yet another sign of the administration’s continuing challenges in promoting gun control.

The United States has long had some of the highest gun violence rates in the world—yet we consistently fail to act. Twenty-three years after Columbine, 10 years after Sandy Hook, six years after Orlando, the story remains the same. We get one news cycle of thoughts, prayers, and calls for something to be done, but little changes, despite overwhelming support for stricter background checks and an assault weapons ban.

Read the full text of Katrina’s column here.