JONATHAN BERNSTEIN: The US is at a tipping point on gun control
'It's now completely possible, even likely, that politicians could decide this year to break from the paranoias that drive many of their decisions'
All politicians are paranoid; the big question is what they're paranoid about. After massive nationwide protests led by student survivors of the Parkland school shooting, there's no shortage of predictions about the coming sea change in the politics of gun control. Behind such a shift would be one big reason: It's now completely possible, even likely, that politicians could decide this year to break from the paranoias that drive many of their decisions. It's been true for decades that the gun issue pitted large polling majorities in favor of tighter restrictions against an intense organized group advocating for gun rights. But the particular stories of the last 20 years have been, at their center, party stories. On the Democratic side, the long shadow of the 1994 elections has begun to recede in the past five years. When the Democrats were shocked by losing both houses of Congress - for the first time since the 1950s - gun control wound up being a major scapegoat. It's not clear whe...
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