Everyone knows the importance of timing. If you act too soon, it means you're too hasty and could come off as desperate. If you act too late, you're behind the game and have completely missed your chance. Never late than never doesn't always apply. If you time it just right, your argument could have your desired effect and then some. On the other hand, if you act at the same time everyone else does, your argument could get lost in the fray.
There's no right way to judge timing. More often than not you don't realize what the right moment was until its passed. But then any attempt to get that moment back is futile and is only met with confusion, disappointment, and ineffectiveness.
In the reading, they discussed how, after the shooting at Virginia Tech, talks of stricter gun laws popped up, inviting all sorts of opinions. Congress discussed harsher laws, people put in their two cents about how guns don't kill people, people kill people, and how enforcing gun-free zones is pointless because then the good guys won't be able to defend themselves.
However, it appears as if nothing has been done. The moment passed. Rather, it became a issue to add to Presidential campaigns among many many other topics and got lost. If they tried to do something now, people would wonder where it was coming from.
On page 56, the book mentions that "while these issues are all urgently important to the nation, they seldom remain in the news for long after some event has brought them to our attention."
We are a people of moments, moving from one news worthy thing to the next. In the moment, we might be worked up, but only until the dust settles and something most exciting has come up.
