Jim Geraghty writes:

Second Amendment enthusiasts are vocal, active, and perhaps an unrivaled force in American politics, and they'll pull out all the stops at the ballot box to swiftly evict any politician who attempts to restrict their rights.

But there’s no denying that the issue of gun rights faded a bit since 2000, when many Democrats concluded that Al Gore’s stand on guns cost him his home state of Tennessee and perhaps some other states. With relatively pro-gun President Bush in the Oval Office and the relatively pro-gun GOP in control of Congress, the primary threat to gun rights seemed to come from state and local governments, and lawsuits. There was some speculation that despite fantastic reelection rates for pro-gun candidates in 2002 and 2004, that gun owners had gotten a little comfortable, and little less motivated to see this as their defining, make-or-break issue.

But I distinctly recall some NRANews listener asking if Election Night 2006 marked the end of gun owner’s rights in America, and while that dire prediction is premature, gun owners now have more at stake at the federal level. And the huge decision on the District of Columbia’s gun ban will also push the issue to the front page again, and presidential candidates will be asked about their stands, repeatedly. It’s a bigger headache for Democrats, who have to balance the ban-guns stands of their base with the pro-Second Amendment rights stance of a majority of the public (and many New Hampshire primary voters as well).

On an unrelated and only slightly less pressing issue, elsewhere, Geraghty writes, the new Congress "passed some law that every radio station must play John Mayer's 'Waiting On The World To Change' at least once an hour". A little-known amendment to the bill apparently also makes it mandatory to play it every frickin' minute in Borders book stores--or at least whenever I've walked into them recently.