Media spin and gun control

Ever notice whenever there's a tragic mass shooting, the reaction of politicians is to try to make the rest of the country more like the location of the shooting, and few notice that's what they're doing because the media never seems to mention that? Connecticut (where Sandy Hook Elementary School is) has an "assault weapons" ban. Sandy Hook and every mass shooting in the US except the one in Tuscon, AZ since 1950 has been in a gun free zone. Wouldn't it make the discussion clearer to say, provide a list of the laws the shooter was breaking? If, that is, the news media had a desire to inform people so they could make better policy. I have found with every subject I know a lot about, mainstream media is totally misleading, and it's always misleading in the direction of promoting more government control and less individual freedom.