For four decades, the National Rifle Assn. has been targeting lawmakers who, in the powerful gun lobby's view, aren't sufficiently supportive of gun owners' rights. In recent years, antigun activists have teamed up with the Clinton Administration to form a countermovement of sorts.
Few issues are more emotional or more visceral, and few issues are more politically complex.
The issue of gun control cuts across traditional political lines like none other. The gun debate often turns conventional politics on its head. Some Democrats see a political panacea in taking on the NRA and its most-rabid followers. They note that gun control is popular among key swing constituency groups such as white women, suburbanites, and older voters. They say it reinforces Democratic strengths in the cities and the Northeast.