Bush knows - or, if he isn't bright enough, he has advisers who are - that he won in 2000 only with the support of 100% of the Red Nation counties that voted for him. And he knows that if he alienates any one county in Red Nation - where guns are loved - he can forget reelection, because enough of us will either just not vote for president at all in 2004, or will vote Buchanan. And every GOP congresscritter who will be running for reelection also knows it.
Bush knows that we did in Bush Daddy in 1992 this way - by just either not voting for president at all, or voting for Perot due to Bush Daddy's constant dissing of gun owners and other social conservatives. If he doesn't know that social conservatives won't support a GOP that doesn't support us, Bush Daddy can tell him.
Scandals of antigun politicians - from Kalifornia to New York City!