House Speaker John Boehner's press office describes the photo above like this:

U.S. House Speaker John Boehner (R-OH) and Ohio GOP lawmakers yesterday joined Americans across the country in pausing for a moment of silence in observance of the tragic shooting in Tuscon, Arizona.

Who knows -- maybe there weren't any Democrats around to observe the moment of silence with Speaker Boehner and his fellow Republicans. Maybe none of the Democrats were willing to join them. But if the flawed policies that let the Tucson shooter pick up a Glock at the local store are to get fixed, it'll take both sides. In reporting that Rep. Carolyn McCarthy (D-New York) is planning legislation to limit the number of bullets a handgun clip can hold, Politico writes:

McCarthy said she plans to confer with House Speaker John Boehner and Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi to see "if we can work something through" in the coming week.

Perhaps Rep. McCarthy will be able to do that, despite the entrenched partisanship of Washington, D.C. She spent five years trying to get Congress to pass a bill that would make it easier for gun sellers to identify mentally ill people who shouldn't be buying guns. That campaign started in 2002 and ended, successfully, in 2007, after the mass shooting at Virginia Tech. During that time, the ban on assault weapons expired, in 2004, and it hasn't been renewed. Maybe the horror of this weekend's shooting will be enough to force change again.

Democrats, apparently:

"The last two years have been a disaster for us," said Representative Carolyn McCarthy, a New York Democrat and a longtime advocate of increased gun control. "A lot of members are just afraid of the N.R.A."

The National Rifle Association has been expanding its reach from guns to just about everything else -- finance, health reform, credit cards. . . It doesn't hurt that the group has millions upon millions to spend on influencing a truly long list of bills.