What if Congress had been in session today?

[alp227]

It's spring recess for Congress, so only the staffers had to experience the shooting and lockdown.

But what if the shooting took place while Congress was IN SESSION? We'd be seeing memes all over DU and social media like "same members of Congress who blocked gun legislation now got a taste of reality in their backyard".

It reminds me of this "On the Media" segment a week after the death of Antonin Scalia that showed how personal experiences can change a Washington elite:

ROSENBAUM: This had to do with oral argument in a case dealing with the family paid leave act, that applied to public government employees which essentially gives paid leave to women who have children. I think it might have even applied to men, in this case dealt with: should we extend that law to private companies? Rehnquist shocked everyone and ruled in favor of extending the benefits to private corporations, he would never be in favor of more government intrusion that extended benefits but what we didn't know, what wasn't widely reported, was that his daughter was going through a nasty divorce and needed help picking up the two daughters. And all of a sudden Justice Rehnquist was grandpa Renquist, and he was asked by his daughter a couple days a week to leave the Supreme Court building to get to school by 3 or 330 and to take the girls home. And it made him very aware. What is it like to be a single parent? When personal lives intrude into the decision making of the court, we see what I would argue are more humanistic decisions. Decisions that make moral sense, not just legal sense.