Newtown follow-up doesn't fade away

>>> it's not acceptable for us to do anything other than try to do all that we have to do. all that is reasonable. since that day, 54 days ago, 1, 600 americans have died at the end of a gun.

>> vice president joe biden addressing the house democrats retreat tonight, taking some time to mark the days since the mass shooting at sandy hook elementary school in newtown, connecticut. and to push his own party to move on reform. joining us now is steve kornacki, the co-host of msnbc's "the cycle." he is a senior writer for salon.com. good to see you.

>> good to see you too. so i was trying to make the case there in the previous segment that the volume of political action to keep gun reform in the news and viable shows that they are cognizant, that reformers are cognizant of the way it's petered out in the past. they're trying to do something out in the past. do you think it is qualitatively different?

>> i think it's quantitatively different, too. if you look at mentions of gun control in news articles, what you see in the pass is after mass shooting tragedy, after a t week, two weeks, it's gone. still more than 50% more than a month of this, that's different than in the past. if you look at tracking social media , tweets involving gun control , second amendment, nra, things like, there they actually have been spiking weeks out from sandy hook . january 9th when obama announced the task force , january 16th . these terms are trending now. that suggests there's engagement here but it's also among the masses, people who are watching, news consumers, voters, are they generally interested in it. there's an appetite for it, too.

>> those after-the-fact spikes in interest is the political action in the wake of the tragedy that is working to corral that consider?

>> or the memory of the tragedy, it spurs a desire for action so, okay, what are we going to do about this now?

>> what do we no from modern history about the effect of meaning transforming desire into concrete political action? what has to happen if.

>> the last time there was real movement on gun was 20 years in the early 1990s . back then it was a high crime rate, high murder rate . new york had 2,000 murders in 1990 . what that all theed in is it finally created a public appetite that something had to be done. there was brady bill , the five-day waiting bill and the assault weapons ban which passed in '94. what is interesting to watch for is what happened then politically. in november 1994 , democrats suffered an absolute wipeout in the election. you could blame that on the tax hike, health care . whether it's valid or not, they chose to take that the push on gun himself turned off a will the of voters. they shut down guns for the rest of the clinton presidency, including after columbine. then kentucky, west, virginia, states that clinton had carried before, that really reinforced the '94 percentage for democrats. it's a warning an opportunity, it's the 2014 mid terms. there's probably going to be some sort of legislative action now. i think this is a long-term thing. if can you go into the 2014 mid terms and you have the president gaejed, the democrats engaged and for instance, mayor bloomberg , if he throws himself into this financially and politically, if the message that democrats and republicans take out of 2014 is the opposite --

>> don't be on the wrong side of this --

>> right. there's momentum to really do more after 2014 .

>> s that fascinating.

>> it could disproven this year.