The Christian Science Monitor looks at why Democrats are retreating from the gun issue, in a very detailed article that talks to a lot of people on all sides. It really comes down to the Democrats having made great strides running people who can win in their districts, and in many cases that means you have to be in favor of the Second Amendment.
BTW, the reporter here is the same one that did the article on gun blogs at the NRA Annual Meeting.  I appreciate that’s he’s continuing to offer fair treatment for the subject, and get views from many different sources.
This is my favorite quote from the article:
“It’s not at all surprising that even in a Democrat-controlled Congress, gun control would be blocked and gun rights proposals would be enacted, because it’s not just a Democrat and Republican issue,†but a cultural one, Mr. Volokh says.
I’ve been saying this for a little while. I’m glad to see that someone else with more clout behind him has said it as well.
I’ve used a similar quote since I first got into this issue nearly a decade ago. It just kind of came out during an interview and I decided I liked it well enough to keep using it. Self-defense is not a partisan issue. It’s simple and it explained why I was able to recruit activists and supporters from women who were Democrats, Greens, and Republicans. (Ironically, I could never get the big-L Libertarians on board with anything to do with the issue.)