Now is not the time to politicize this. I never trust that phrase, especially when it comes from a politician. Politicians who tell you not to politicize things need a career change. Now is precisely the time to politicize Vegas and talk about guns. As Vegas native Jimmy Kimmel (who realizes now is the time to politicize everything) explained in Monday’s monologue: “We have 59 innocent people dead. It wasn’t their time either. So I think now is the time for political debate.”

+ “There are few — if any — demographic variables that cleave the country as cleanly between parties as gun ownership. This may be because gun ownership is such an effective proxy for the urban vs. rural divide that has come to define our politics.” Some good analysis and a couple very interesting maps from NY Mag.

+ NYT with the latest numbers: 477 Days. 521 Mass Shootings. Zero Action From Congress.

+ From me: How about now?

+ James Hamblin: “For all its use, ‘thoughts and prayers’ doesn’t appear to have produced a quantifiable reduction in the rates of gun violence.” The Impotence of Blaming Evil.

+ Vice on the arsenal: “The gunman in Sunday’s Las Vegas mass shooting had amassed an arsenal of at least 42 guns, a batch of potentially explosive chemicals, and thousands of rounds of ammunition, police said Monday. He was also equipped with a device that effectively converts semi-automatic weapon into an automatic, allowing rapid-fire of bullets with one pull on the trigger.” And here’s a look at Nevada’s lax gun laws.

+ Russell Berman on the gun legislation with the best chance of passing Congress. (Spolier alert: It loosens existing regulations.)

+ The New Yorker’s: John Cassidy: “Of all the ways in which American democracy is showing symptoms of turning into a dysfunctional state, the inability to face down the gun lobby is surely one of the most egregious.”

+ How strong is the gun lobby? “The CDC stopped funding gun injury research. The National Institutes of Health followed suit.” (Forget gun control. We’re not even allowed to talk about the holes the bullets make…)

+ “For the past few decades, the National Rifle Association has increasingly nurtured an alliance with country music artists and their fans … That wholesome public relations veneer masks something deeply sinister and profoundly destructive.” Roseanne Cash in the NYT: Country Musicians, Stand Up to the NRA.

+ McSweeney’s: Things More Heavily Regulated Than Buying A Gun in the United States.