"Is the Gun Lobby’s Power Overstated?"

"the invincibility of the gun lobby is being overstated. For one thing, gun ownership is becoming more concentrated in a smaller share of the population, one that is increasingly clustered in certain regions, thus limiting the lobby’s political reach.

For another thing, the big recent defeat for the gun-control movement, the 2013 failure to pass universal background checks for gun purchases, was a close call. Six senators with A-ratings from the NRA voted for the bill; it fell just five short of the filibuster-proof 60. Had it passed the Senate, there would have been great pressure from the Sandy Hook families to bring it up for a vote in the House, and it would have needed only about 20 Republicans to pass...

As more elected officials take on the NRA and live to tell the tale, the calculus for even self-interested politicians will evolve"

https://www.propublica.org/article/is-the-gun-lobby-power-overstated?utm_campaign=sprout&utm_medium=social&utm_source=facebook&utm_content=1444048205