Monica Jorge/ Special to the Denver Post
NEWTOWN, Conn — At a library two miles from Sandy Hook Elementary School, where 20 students were among those killed in one of the nation’s most horrific mass shootings, John Hickenlooper sat Saturday among two dozen survivors, listening to their ideas on how to curb gun violence and pitching a few of his own.
Universal background checks are a must, the former two-term Colorado governor said. Then, maybe, an assault weapons ban. As president, he would go community by community, House district by House district, with data to convince reluctant federal lawmakers to pass meaningful gun control legislation.
“Every great social triumph was built on the ashes of previous failures,” Hickenlooper told the crowd. “We’re at a point now where we have critical mass. I really feel now we’re at an inflection point, where if everyone continues their efforts in the next year or two, after 2020 we will have the momentum — it really is momentum — to address gun violence issues.”
It’s conversations like the one Hickenlooper had Saturday on the presidential campaign trail that give gun control advocates hope that the 2020 election will be a watershed moment for an agenda that has stalled at the national level.
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