If every shooting in America is political, this one was especially so. James Hodgkinson, a 66-year-old man from Belleville, Illinois, opened fire at Republican congressmen at an early-morning baseball practice in Virginia, injuring five people including the House majority whip, Steve Scalise.

At a press conference from the scene, Virginia governor and Democrat Terry McAuliffe was the first to raise the spectre of gun control. “There are too many guns on the street,” he said, before remarking that it wasn’t the day for that debate. “If it’s not the day for it why are you bringing it up?” replied a reporter.

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The Republican-controlled House recently opposed expanding background checks for gun buyers and limiting access to assault rifles. “Congressmen, especially Republican congressmen, are very obedient to whatever the NRA tells them,” said John Donohue, a Stanford law professor who studies gun policy.

The NRA has long banged the drum for a more armed citizenry – good guys with guns to stop bad guys with guns, the logic goes. But it “almost never happens” that an armed citizen stops a gunman, said Mr Donohue. “I just wrote a paper on this. Allowing citizens to carry freely on the street doesn’t decrease crime, it increases it.”