In the wake of the Newtown shooting, President Obama repeatedly called for new gun-control legislation, insisting in his State of the Union address that such measures at least “deserve a vote.”

On the Congressional level, high-profile bills making it a felony to buy a gun for someone else and reinstating an assault weapons ban have passed the Senate Judiciary Committee in the past week but face an uncertain future in the full Senate. Lawmakers have quietly made four gun-rights provisions permanent, including one that prevents the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms from requiring gun dealers to keep inventories to make sure no weapons are lost or stolen.

Most of the movement on gun legislation has been at the state level. Since Jan. 1, a raft of new bills has been introduced, with 574 proposed bills to strengthen gun controls, and 512 to bolster gun rights, according to a new analysis by the Law Center to Prevent Gun Violence, which tracks state gun laws. Connecticut alone has introduced more than 100 gun-control measures and as well as a handful of gun-rights bills since the shooting.

And 54 additional measures — about half pro-gun, half gun-control — were already pending when the Newtown shooting happened on Dec. 14 and are still in front of state legislatures.

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/social-issues/newtown-divided/while-feds-debate-states-take-up-gun-fight/