I suppose I'd be more disappointed by President Barack Obama and Governor-elect Jay Inslee's tepid, non-specific responses to today's tragic school shooting in Connecticut if I was actually expecting anything more forceful and specific. But I wasn't. Democrats don't like to talk about gun control because gun control has proven to be a very bad issue for Democrats.

And it's not just NRA money that Dems are afraid of. Gun control is perceived to be an electoral kiss of death with voters in swing districts. And since the Democratic leadership doesn't believe it can win a meaningful vote on the issue, they don't believe it's worth spending the political capital even trying. So apart from a handful of liberal Dems in very safe districts, you aren't likely going to see any real Democratic leadership on this issue.

I suppose that's smart politics if your focus is solely on winning the next election. But this Democratic silence only serves to make the problem worse. We don't even have a one-sided conversation about gun control anymore, we have no conversation at all. And our death industry and its judicial and legislative allies have exploited this political vacuum to fill our streets and our homes and our schools with more and more guns.

So as long as they continue to listen to their political consultants instead of their consciences, don't expect most Dems to speak boldly on this issue, regardless of what they quietly believe.