A week after the latest gun massacre in America, the US pro and anti-gun lobbies are hunkering down on their positions. As expected, a new survey of American attitudes on gun control finds that support is split across party lines, with Democrats in favor and Republicans against. The tragedy in the Florida high school and the general rise in mass shootings are only convincing both sides that they are right, causing them to dig in further.

But there are a number of areas where Americans find common ground such as supporting stricter background checks of at least three days and restricting gun control for people with a history of mental illness. In the week since 17 students and educators were shot dead by a crazed former student, additional remedies to help prevent another mass shooting have included law enforcement officers to be placed in schools, active shooter training for students and staff, as well as three methods currently being championed by Donald Trump: raising the minimum age for buying semiautomatic rifles to 21 years old, prohibiting bump fire stocks which can make semiautomatic weapons fire rounds more rapidly and, the most controversial, proposing arming teachers.

Reform advocates have welcomed such steps but warn that they do not go far enough. More changes won’t be so easy. In a fiery speech, the head of the National Rifle Association, the most powerful gun lobby in the US, accused Democrats and media of exploiting the Florida school shooting for political gain and TV ratings. The NRA, which wields significant influence in Republican politics, is adamant. From Columbine to Virginia Tech, Sandy Hook, Charleston and Las Vegas, the NRA is impervious to previous tragedies. It has never succumbed to the families of victims and knee-jerk emotions. Despite the repeated national traumas, and despite poll after poll showing a majority in favor of stronger gun control measures, the NRA, which gives generously to pro-gun politicians, has built a movement that has convinced its followers that gun ownership is a way of life, a constitutional right never to be jeopardized.

To American gun owners, another mass shooting is not an argument for getting rid of guns but yet another reason to arm and defend themselves.

Following the Florida shootings, President Trump attended listening sessions on gun control and gave a speech in which he seemed to be searching for common ground that satisfies demands for change but does not alienate his conservative base that is part of a big gun rights culture that in turn has a grip on American politics. It has been cultivated over the decades and no national trauma, no matter how horrific, is going to make a difference.

Red and blue America have become more ideologically distant from one another. The gun issue is a salient example of the polarization in Congress. Certainly the GOP will never come close to considering gun control in an election year as this one in November, when Republicans eye potential primary challenges.

After every mass shooting, the voices for gun control ring out but the zeal lasts for just a few days. It soon peters out as news coverage shifts to other matters and political prospects for action diminish. All the while and every day, guns continue to take lives, in suicides, domestic violence, other crimes and accidents. High school students, led by those who survived Florida, have organized anti-gun marches and appear a powerful new force in American politics. But the battle for gun control in the US is difficult and will not be won overnight.