Wedge?

That said,  Gun Control isn't all roses and cream for the Democrats.  There are still many in the "Red States" that have to deal with the disconnect between their constituency and their Party.

Normally such wedge issues, at least among the Left, are downplayed.  But that's hard to do with gun control.

"A SELF-INFLICTED WEDGE ISSUE? WaPo: Gun debate divides Democrats and tests Obama’s second-term strategy.

With Dems bringing shooting victims to the State Of The Union, I hope that Republicans will be smart enough to bring some people whose lives were saved by having a gun. It’s not like such people are in short supply."

Sebastian notes the National Democrats saw the same thing in 94.  When there were fewer gun owners and far fewer gun owners that carried pistols and/or had EBRs.

Though the Republican party may be stupider now.  So there's that.

And there's also that while guns, especially for self defense, are more accepted than they were in 94... well

"I’m a suburban white guy, and have been since the early 90's. I don’t know what the end result will be, but guns are MUCH more acceptable by white/liberal suburban people than in ’95. Here in Colorado I know several faithful Democrat voters who also have a CCW and enjoy owning guns. I think guns have penetrated into liberal suburbia a whole lot compared to 1996 when the concept of legal and widespread CCW didn’t even exist in Colorado.

The question is … and I can’t answer this … with all the memes about class warfare and evil Republicans that these same CCWing and “large capacity” “assault clip” owning Democrats have bought in to — will they vote for a Republican to protect the rights they have taken advantage of? Do they even pay enough attention to know what is happening?"

This shows why the gun grabbers are so hot to punish gun owners and pass laws while the iron is hot, and the dangers of complacency.

And it's really hard to get people to go "Maybe you shouldn't vote for the Gun Grabber" when Republicans pull shit like this.  That's a New Mexico state rep trying to make it illegal to have an abortion if you were raped as it would be "evidence tampering".  Insane grandstanding. Especially since New Mexico has Dem control of both houses (which they are using to try to get a private sale ban.) And worse that her own State Party officials told her to knock this off.

Meanwhile the Democrats can go with whatever gun ban bills they want and it's all "Safety" and "Common Sense."

I guess the thing to do is to localize an election and go "Yes both parties are fucked up.  Now let's see which one will be worse for your rights."

From the same guy from Colorado

BTW — if I had to guess — the problem is that if I made these self-righteous liberal white suburbanites choose between supporting their gun rights (which they do believe in) or supporting early term abortion rights, gay marriage, health care (insurance) for poor people, etc … I’m afraid they’d go with the latter. But that said, at least one friend who voted pretty much all (D) last election is pissed off enough he joined the NRA (one of the 400k or so newbies) and has sworn to vote against the Democrats next time. We’ll see...

Aye.  It's still better to have more people owning guns and supporting gun rights, though it'd be really nice if they bothered to vote for those rights.

Still, it's a step up from them being hostile to gun rights (though if they vote that way...)

And in more good news there are more and more female gun owners.

Note the source.  That's New York Times saying "The Rising Voice of Gun Owners is Female."

The more people that own guns, the bigger the pool of people who will lobby, write, and vote for 2nd amendment rights gets.

The question is how many of them would only get involved when their guns get threatened?
(Though given the double stack handguns, the EBR, and the sheer scope of the gun grabbers that's already here.)

And related  is this bit from Reason.

I should have known that the gun show would be packed when my wife, out of the blue, suggested that we attend as a family. Since we met, she's transitioned from a woman with a gun control poster on her wall to a fair shot with a .38 revolver who has proclaimed rifles "boring" because it's too easy to hit the target. Still, the words "let's all go to the gun show" have never before passed her lips. Clearly, she's in tune with a cultural moment, because much of Arizona's Verde Valley had the same idea. And, by all reports, ammunition and reloading supplies were the hot items at the event.

 There's a reason the antis  are so big on stigmatizing gun owners and putting up barriers that weigh the heaviest on casual gun owners and especially those looking to buy their first gun.

They want those hurdles as high as possible to keep people from realizing what guns are really like,  from having more people walking around out there showing their friends what gun owners are really like.

It's easy to demonize a group of people that you've never met (And yes, that counts for Gay rights too. Though I'll note that the Gun Grabbers want to disarm gay people too.  Ponder that if you will.)

Hate is much harder when one of your friends is part of the group you're raging against.