One gunman. 28 dead. Two injured. Countless loved ones of the victims.

One failed piece of gun legislation.

Now, an indefinite number of spree killings will not be prevented.

Most Americans know exactly where they were on Dec. 14, 2012, when they first heard news of the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting. I specifically recall standing stiff in my living room gawking at the TV when the numbers began to scroll across the screen.

We lived through the D.C. sniper, Columbine and a very recent Aurora, Col. theater shooting. Yet, the idea that such a young adult not only gunned down his own mother, but 26 other innocent people, mostly young children, before killing himself shook our sense of security as a society.

Rather than watch the body count of U.S. mass shootings rise, the citizens of Newtown, Conn. decided that no one would die in vain that day.

“Speaking as a parent, I think these parents have a unique moral position that could create a movement in the protracted gun control debate,” said Professor of Peace and Conflict Studies Jeremy Rinker.

Since the tragedy, parents of the slain children have acted in attempt to enforce stricter gun control laws in the U.S. This included mandatory background checks, limiting the amount of rounds in a magazine and banning assault weapons.

“I don’t see the point of assault weapon use in the general population,” said Virginia gun owner Penny Smith. “You don’t need them for home protection, hunting and target shooting. There’s no point. What we do need is background checks.”

However, last Thursday, the bill to enforce these new protections failed to pass the Senate.

The devastation and disappointment reached the White House, as President Barack Obama called its failure to pass “a dark day in Congress.”

The failure of a bill that would protect our basic safety is a disgrace to our processes in government and an abuse of the votes we have given to our representatives.

As a person training in gun use, I fully support regulating what type of guns are being sold and to whom they are being sold. The fact is, certain people in this country who should never have access to firearms, and certain guns should not be in the hands of the general public.

I can relate this reasoning to personal experience. In early 2008, my father shot my stepmother dead and wounded my eldest stepbrother before committing suicide.

My father should have never had access to firearms. He was a convicted drug dealer and user and had untreated mental health problems.

The reason he was able to bypass his past convictions was the gun show loophole. No background checks, just easy access.

The fact is everyday citizens would be unaffected by gun control. Background checks wouldn’t restrict nonviolent citizens in terms of access to firearms.

With this being said, is Congress in a state to pass gun legislation that will protect innocent citizens from violent offenders? No.

Congressional leaders are far too busy fighting amongst themselves for personal and partisan needs. The last thing on their minds is implementing policies that will prevent the next inevitable massacre.

It is also important to consider that Sandy Hook was the second deadliest shooting in U.S. history. Its body count does not fully measure up to the 33 dead and 23 injured in the Virginia Tech massacre of 2007. From that tragedy, no new gun control was enforced. And, as usual, no one was inspired to act based on something in second place.

I fear that it will have to take a greater amount of death in order to get Congress to take action.

However, the collective conscience of the country is better geared to be proactive in these tragic situations.

“Newtown has changed us,” said Senator Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.) to the Huffington Post. “There is no going back now.”