With the unabated spate of mass shootings and the predictable inaction that follows, it’s incredibly tempting to throw your hands in the air in frustrated futility and give up. Recent history hasn’t really given us cause to think optimistically where rational gun control is concerned. After Columbine shocked the nation, we thought things surely had to change. We, as a nation, wouldn’t stand for this. Something had to give. But nothing did. After Virginia Tech, another educational institution, was attacked, it felt like an important turning point that could spur change. Again, we heard nothing but crickets from Congress. Finally, when twenty kids were massacred at Sandy Hook Elementary School, we thought that surely, the extent and barbarity of this tragedy would move the needle. And for the briefest of moments it did. Background checks were passed in a couple states, Colorado among them. Then the president of the Colorado State Legislature, who had co-sponsored the bill, was recalled and defeated in a special election funded by the assholes freedom-loving patriots at the National Rifle Association. And the collective sphincter of the political class tightened, our elected officials predictably lost their nerve, and the status quo prevailed.

When the tragedies mount and our politicians cry and pray and bemoan and ultimately don’t do anything of substance, it’s tempting to assume that nothing can be done. But I’m here to tell you that isn’t the case. The good news about gun control, hard as it is to see and obscured as it is by the unrelenting barrage of gun-related incidents, is that progress is being made. Granted, it’s incremental progress of the painstaking variety, but change is in the air. And we need your voice, your passion, and your participation more than ever.

In the heart of the Jim Crow Era in the post-Reconstruction South, it must have seemed like nothing would ever change or improve for the African-American community. A Civil War had been fought, nominally on their behalf, to free them from their chains and remove the oppressive system of slavery. Instead, a system of legal subjugation and political and economic disenfranchisement was put up in its place; blacks lost the vote they had only so briefly gained, and slaves were converted into sharecroppers. The march of progress had halted in its tracks. The fight for equality must have seemed incredibly bleak, if not impossible, to civil rights advocates. If an emasculating defeat in the Civil War and the presence of federal troops for ten years thereafter couldn’t overturn the traditional southern hierarchy, what could?

But civil rights advocates refused to lay down and continued to push for progress. And while it took them the better part of the 20th century to achieve some (but not all) of their goals, they didn’t lose faith. They constantly inched the movement forward through a slow, steady push in the courts, the voting booths, and the streets. Sure, there were watershed moments like Selma and Birmingham, but it was mostly the support of conscientious citizens from all walks of life and all races that made progress possible. And the fact that they had conviction, decency, and sanity on their side. After the events of Ferguson and other similar incidents, it’s clear that the fight for racial equality is far from over, but the arc of progress is undeniable.

Like the Civil Rights Movement during Jim Crow, the gun control movement is in a similarly perplexing and frustrating rut. Despite the laundry list of mass shootings, a mountain of evidence, and basic sanity/common sense on its side, the gun control movement cannot seem to get meaningful federal legislation even considered, much less passed.

This inaction on a national level, however, belies the fact that some great and important work is being done on the state and local level by a variety of actors. Similar to how the SCLC and SNCC fostered grass-roots change at the local level, so too are courageous governors, mayors, and city officials pushing the gun control agenda forward one common-sense measure at a time. New York and California have led the charge nationwide, with certain progressive cities taking the most innovative tacks. New York City, under Mayor Michael Bloomberg, championed some of the toughest gun laws in the country, requiring not only state but city permits to carry guns (in addition to NY state laws that include background checks and assault weapons/high-capacity magazine bans). Both LA and San Francisco have recently passed ordinances banning large-capacity gun magazines; San Francisco’s ordinances have even withstood legal challenges, financed, naturally, by Voldemort “he who shall not be named”. As I said, there is good news out there—you just have to look little harder to find it.

Last month, I attended an encouraging presentation by Los Angeles City Attorney Mike Feuer who has been leading the charge locally in LA and nationally as well. He spoke of the numerous initiatives that have been proposed and passed in the state of California and the city of Los Angeles in the last few years. California has perhaps the most restrictive gun laws of any state in the union, requiring not only federal but state-level background checks on all gun purchases. It also boasts registration of all handguns, an assault weapons ban, and a limit on magazine capacities. In an innovative approach to gun control and policing, the state legislature passed a bill requiring the micro-stamping of all handguns so that police could more easily identify the gun owner from the stamped shell casings at a crime scene. Is California perfect? Absolutely not. It does not require the registration of all firearms, for instance, though gun owners must have a Firearm Safety Certificate. Simply put, California is light-years ahead of places such as Louisiana and Mississippi which ranked dead last and second-to-last in The Law Center to Prevent Gun Violence’s 2014 Scorecard.[1]

LA and San Francisco have taken the lead in pushing other innovative reforms forward as well. An ordinance that guns must be locked while at home passed in LA this year, and Feuer, in his capacity as City Attorney, actually charged a mother whose son brought her gun and ammunition to school. The City Attorney’s Office has cooperated with the LAPD to get guns out of the hands of prohibited persons to seize over 500 weapons.[2] A successful city initiative has limited gun purchases to one per month, which, naturally, was opposed by pro-gun groups (because really, everyone should be able to buy as many guns as they want, whenever they want).

I give Feuer a world of credit because he has maintained his faith in the possibility of bi-partisan change, despite all appearances to the contrary. He has reached across the aisle to create a non-partisan organization called Prosecutors Against Gun Violence that seeks sensible, compromise solutions that both sides can support,[3] like the aforementioned micro-stamping of weapons that is supported by gun-control advocates and police departments throughout the state of California. Given my rigid stance on all gun issues and my abhorrence of guns, I’m pretty sure I’d piss the pro-gun crowd off at the first meeting, but I’m glad that there is someone like Feuer is pushing the envelope in a bi-partisan way.

While the sad truth is that most states are not as progressive as California and New York, there are other forces entering the fray the will have their say in the debate. There are numerous activist groups tirelessly pushing the cause forward. Michael Bloomberg has committed some of his many millions to the group Mayors Against Illegal Guns to advocate for more effective gun control. The group Everytown for Gun Safety, where a colleague of mine from Johns Hopkins is the research director, has committed to challenge national political candidates who stand in the way of meaningful gun reform laws.

Some of the mainstream media also finally seems to have come around on the issue as well, led, naturally, by a satirical outfit. The Onion, in a stroke of morbid genius, runs the same headline each time a mass shooting happens—“No Way to Prevent This, Says Only Nation Where This Regularly Happens”—only changing the salient details of the story to emphasize the banality and inanity of the response. John Stewart, usually one of the most eloquent pundits on the issue, was left speechless after the Charleston shooting, but his silence and frustration were damning and resonated beyond what he might have said. Even some mainstream media outlets seem to be getting in line behind sensible gun control measures, going so far as to finally call out the pro-gun crowd on their bullshit and ludicrous, canned answers to seemingly basic questions.[4]

It’s hardly a surprise that the liberal enclaves of the country are more onboard with gun control, but what might finally convince the more recalcitrant states are the economic arguments. For my cost-benefit analysis class this past spring, we were charged with conducting a study on the topic of our choosing. Naturally, I chose gun control and performed a cost-benefit analysis for a proposed policy of mandatory universal background checks on all firearm purchases in the state of Louisiana.[5] In just its first year, I calculated that the implementation of such a policy would net the state over $300 million.[6] If the holdouts and the laggard states are not convinced by political arguments, the economic arguments and statistical evidence will be ever harder to ignore.

There will continue to be any number of difficulties in the years to come as the fight over gun control evolves. Thankfully, it seems that the majority of the country supports, or is coming around on, a few fundamental fixes: background checks, limits on gun purchases, bans on certain classifications of weapons. Given the widespread support of the electorate on these issues, the NRA’s money can only buy off the political class for so long. Now don’t get me wrong, I’m just as irate as you are at the inaction of our political class and the befuddling, contorted logic of the pro-gun crowd. I’m just as frustrated with the consistent misinterpretation of an outdated clause in our constitution.[7] And I’m just as embarrassed and perplexed that our democracy has failed in this respect where almost all of our peers succeeded long ago. But change is coming; in fact, it’s already happening. We’ve got sanity and the not inconsiderable weight of evidence and history on our side. It might be hard to see right now, but the tide is turning. Keep the faith and keep pushing. It worked for civil rights (and gay marriage for that matter), and it will work for gun control. Every waterfall starts with a drop of water my friends.

[1] In a purely serendipitous coincidence that will shock you, Louisiana and Mississippi also rank 2nd and 3rd out of all 50 states for the rate of gun death. Gotta love the sweet taste of freedom. Unless of course, it tastes like lead.

[2] http://www.latimes.com/opinion/op-ed/la-oe-newton-column-feuer-gun-control-20141103-column.html

[3] http://www.latimes.com/local/lanow/la-me-ln-la-feuer-anti-gun-violence-prosecutors-20140917-story.html

[4] Because “more guns” or “arm the teachers” are fundamentally idiotic answers to the question “how do we stop school shootings?”

[5] I chose Louisiana for its stellar record on gun laws.

[6] $333 million to be exact—the majority of the benefit stemmed from prevented homicides and suicides. I’ll be happy to send you the paper if you want. It received an A so I guess it was fairly methodologically sound.

[7] If you want to read a much more eloquent explanation of the misinterpretation of the 2nd Amendment, check out former Supreme Court Justice John Paul Steven’s 2014 op-ed in The Washington Post: https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/the-five-extra-words-that-can-fix-the-second-amendment/2014/04/11/f8a19578-b8fa-11e3-96ae-f2c36d2b1245_story.html