The Sheeple will just never get it...compromise is the end result of consensus, which only prolongs the process and without establishing an absolute - that either Sovereign, American citizens "have" the inalienable right to keep and bear arms or they don't...
Licenses are just a more precise method of control, whose ultimate outcome is confiscation.
Moreover, the NRA is just a symbol of a deeper problem - America's inability to confront the hard questions facing it on a basic level.
This political quagmire has been created by an environment of consensus...where there are no absolutes, only areas of temporary mob agreement...til the next mob gets together and is herded into consensus by the current circus ringmaster. ;-)
It all flies in the face of the foundation of the once great Republic - Natural Law is Natural Law, regardless what any "group" thinks. The millions of laws on the books are about as necessary as a tick on a dog, with the same result - parasites are fed at the host's expense.
Of course, this was all addressed some time ago by the a friend of mine named Dr. Eugene Schroder, who led a movement to restore our Constitution to its Common Law (i.e. Natural Law) foundation...the NRA and most Americans weren't interested, thus the circle jerk continues.
Read the following, and you may get an idea what I'm talking about, as well as why I don't vote and haven't participated in political matters at all since 1995 (the end of the Common Law movement).
http://www.wealth4freedom.com/truth/waract.htmI wouldn't argue with you over most of Dr. Schroders work. But we have to start somewhere. Reverse incrementalism beats doing nothing. We are making progress, at least hereabouts. Don't give up...