We've had these conversations before, but there appears to be more political will from the President and congressional leaders to get some reasonable legislation passed to prevent these tragedies.

OSU Cascades Political Science Professor Jim Foster says a 2008 Supreme Court case, District of Columbia verus Heller - where the high court struck down the D.C. ban on handguns in the home  - offers some perimeters.

"So what Heller said was indiivduals do have a right to have a gun.  And what McDonald states is states and localities have to respect that right.  But Heller found just because it's an individual right to own a gun, and there is no such thing as an absolute right, it doesn't preclude reasonable regulation and that opens the door to what is reasonable."

Foster says gun control legislation will have to come not just from the federal level, but from the state and local levels as well.