[Billthedrill]

I don't know whether it's a good or bad thing, but the persistent focus on the Gun Lobby as a boogieman blurs the magnitude of popular support for the right to own firearms. In the case of the prohibitionists it's easy to see why this focus - it isn't quite a straw man, but it's close - is advantageous: the implication is that outside the malign influence of the Gun Lobby Americans would naturally throw the nasty things into the ocean and break out into a chorus of We Are The World. That simply isn't the case. And frankly, the NRA is far more powerful in reputation than in fact.

Two of the author's "predictions" are simply observations of fact: first, that the fight is, and has been for some time, focused back at state level and the gun prohibitionists are losing badly; second, that firearms ownership demographics were never quite as lily-white as The Narrative claimed and are diversifying further not simply as a function of advertisement but as a function of the broadening conviction that the state cannot or will not protect the citizens in question. The right of self-protection gains a great deal of credence in the face of the necessity of self-protection.

For state-obsessed progressives and other totalitarians this isn't a good development. For the rest of us, it is, and if that "rest" includes anarchists, black separatists, revolutionaries, and other common allies of the Left, then all one can say is that politics makes strange bedfellows, and that maybe the gun prohibitionists will recognize a losing battle when it's staring them in the face. Or not. People who believe their own propaganda tend to be very hard to reach.

[citizen352]

If everyone had guns and knew how to use them then the crime rate would drop significantly

[Oatka]

. . . first, that the fight is, and has been for some time, focused back at state level and the gun prohibitionists are losing badly;

In many cases, yes. However, as shown in the state of Washington, Bloomberg's money can fool much of the all-too-gullible voters into enacting their wet dream of gun registration via a "background check" state initiative. That, or "aiding" anti-gun politicians, as in Oregon, which is considering a BC bill this Monday. (see post #13 at http://freerepublic.com/focus/f-bloggers/3285530/posts) Anybody can write these guys. Even though this is Sunday, drop 'em a line.)

Nevada and Arizona are also under the gun.

If we don't watch out, while we are patting ourselves on the back over states going Shall Issue, we may wake up and find ourselves with a National Gun Registration law in effect via the state legislatures.