WASHINGTON — Newtown, Connecticut. Parkland, Florida. Uvalde, Texas. Paradise, Nevada. And the Squirrel Hill synagogue building in Pittsburgh.

All sites of mass shootings. But Congress responded with little more than thoughts and prayers.

Bipartisan legislation by U.S. Sens. Patrick Toomey, R-Pa., and Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., was stymied by a Senate filibuster in 2013.

U.S. Sen. Chris Murphy, D-Conn., led a 15-hour filibuster in 2016 that ended only after Senate GOP leaders agreed to vote on gun bills. Republicans blocked the measures on the Senate floor.

That was followed by a 25-hour sit-in on the floor of the U.S. House led by Rep. John Lewis, D-Ga., the civil rights icon, but Republicans blocked action there too.

“For so long, the small minority of gun extremists dictated so much of

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