The difference this time is that millions more citizens own semi-auto rifles and millions more citizens have concealed carry permits now as compared to, say, 1994. Even amongst the Out Door Life crowd in the early 1990’s it was only the nut cases who had AR-15’s, whereas now they are seen as bona fide varmint rifles that have gone main stream (heck, even Remington makes one now). Throw in the Heller decision, and things get interested.
There are also democratic legislators who saw a good number of their comrades booted out of office in 1994 too, and would rather not play that game anymore.
If Obamzo the clown reads “these guns belong on foreign battle fields” off his teleprompter one more time, someone ought to ask if his secret service detail is on a foreign battle field. If disarmament is such a dandy thing then why should the federal government pester private individuals when the federal government could disarm itself with the stroke of a pen?