Nearly five months after the tragic shooting, Colorado Gov. John Hickenlooper stated that “the time is right” to reconsider various gun laws.

“I wanted to have at least a couple of months off after the shooting in Aurora to let people process and grieve and get a little space, but it is, I think, now is the time is right,” Hickenlooper said.

While I may not agree with the substance of the Governor’s reforms, I commend him for approaching this issue when passions have calmed and the tragedies are a bit less fresh in our mind.

Hickenlooper also recently (quietly) signed into law the law legalizing marijuana, so I guess everything got a lot more chill in Colorado.

Update: I wrote this post last night–before the tragic shootings in Connecticut his morning–and scheduled it to publish this morning.

Update 2: CF. this tweet from Maryland Rep. Donna Edwards:

[tweet https://twitter.com/repdonnaedwards/status/279649364169854976]

Update 3: Cf. The White House said “today’s not the day” to talk about gun control.

“I think that day will come, but today’s not that day, especially as we are awaiting more information about the situation,” Carney told reporters in a somber press briefing at the White House.

Update 4: Mayor Bloomberg weighs in:

With all the carnage from gun violence in our country, it’s still almost impossible to believe that a mass shooting in a kindergarten class could happen. It has come to that. Not even kindergarteners learning their A,B,Cs are safe. We heard after Columbine that it was too soon to talk about gun laws. We heard it after Virginia Tech. After Tucson and Aurora and Oak Creek. And now we are hearing it again. For every day we wait, 34 more people are murdered with guns. Today, many of them were five-year olds. President Obama rightly sent his heartfelt condolences to the families in Newtown. But the country needs him to send a bill to Congress to fix this problem. Calling for ‘meaningful action’ is not enough. We need immediate action. We have heard all the rhetoric before. What we have not seen is leadership – not from the White House and not from Congress. That must end today. This is a national tragedy and it demands a national response. My deepest sympathies are with the families of all those affected, and my determination to stop this madness is stronger than ever.