Newswise — Calls for unity abound after mass shootings in the United States, but when it comes to the politics surrounding gun laws, the gulf between the sides of the debate has only grown wider and angrier, a legal expert on gun liability said.

Timothy D. Lytton, Distinguished University Professor in the Center for Law, Health and Society at Georgia State University is available for comment about gun control and gun liability. His contact information is in the contact box above, visible to registered, logged-in users of the Newswise system.

“One lesson of past mass shootings has been that they are likely to have little effect on gun control policy,” Lytton explained.

He noted that the day after the tragedy in Orlando that occurred in the early morning hours of June 12, 2016, stocks of gun manufacturers jumped upwards.

“Indeed, mass shootings seem to widen the rift between gun rights advocates and gun control advocates – and boost gun sales of the very weapons of the types used in the attacks,” Lytton said.

Lytton specializes in torts, products liability, administrative law, and legislation and statutory interpretation. Lytton’s book, Suing the Gun Industry: A Battle at the Crossroads of Gun Control and Mass Torts, analyzes tort litigation aimed at reducing gun violence.

He has been widely quoted in news media covering liability lawsuits against gun manufacturers, including the lawsuit stemming from the 2012 mass shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn.

Lytton has been interviewed by national and international media outlets about other lawsuits against the gun industry, including the New York Times, the Washington Post, Reuters, the Boston Globe, the Atlanta Journal Constitution, the Hartford Courant, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, and MSNBC, as well as several public radio stations.

Read more about Timothy Lytton at law.gsu.edu/profile/timothy-d-lytton.