Well, I think you can generally trust politicians to act in their self-interest, and that includes avoiding legislation that would alienate a large fraction of the people that they have convinced to vote for them; such a large fraction, in fact, that they would be at very real risk of losing their prized majorities. We can already see that the Democrats have indeed learned from history, because you'll notice that ever since the 1994 AWB episode, the party as a whole has been very quiet about gun control. Certainly the more liberal members (Schumer, Feinstein, et. al.) have never stopped vomiting up their ridiculous showboating nonsense at every opportunity, but the party as a whole seems to have learned that gun control is a losing issue for them and that the majority of Americans simply don't want to hear about it. I have certainly heard more than one prominent Democratic strategist concede that point. That's the political reality of the situation, despite any folksy parables comparing Democrats to irredeemably treacherous scorpions.
Plus, be heartened by this: If, against my predictions, the Democrats are dumb enough to pass significant gun control legislation again, you can shortly look forward to the resumption of Republican rule!
EDIT: Warner, Webb, Reid, Baucus, Conrad, Johnson, Gillibrand, Tester, Begich, and Nelson are all solidly pro-gun Democratic Senators. You may recall Webb in particular as the guy who got in trouble for trying to bring a concealed handgun into the Capitol. All are from areas where gun ownership is popular and where, while the people aren't necessarily too conservative to elect a Democrat if he seems like a decent sort, a Democrat who supported a major gun-control bill would definitely have trouble getting re-elected. There is a corresponding large block of congressmen in the same boat. They know it, and their party leadership knows it (in the case of Reid, they ARE party leadership). The last thing they're going to do is hand the Republicans a big pile of ammunition to use against them the next they're up for reelection.






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