I don’t think there’s any truth to it, but on the flip side, Obama and Dems should know from history that gun control is the real 3rd rail of politics for the Democrat party. Once they go hard left on that issue, they usually see a real tide turned. They tried it in Clinton’s first two years, and there is no doubt 1994 was influenced in part on this issue.
Democrats have long known that a quick way to power was by giving (our) things away. Since we seem so docile, or have for such a long time, they thought we would behave the same way to their taking things away from us.