The pundit class of the mainstream media is apparently still in shock and denial over the results of the 2014 midterm elections, a contest that was so-only sided that it’s hard to put into context. The results of a handful of races are still in doubt thanks to run-off elections and recounts, but the overall outcome is clear. Republicans will have control of up to 54 seats in the U.S. Senate, and up to 250 seats in the House of Representatives. Republicans scored huge gains on the state level as well, winning the governor’s mansions and control of the legislatures in even traditionally “blue” states.

It was—to put it mildly—a historic butt-whooping, and the worst election for Democrats since the 1920s, since before progressives (then more accurately described as communists and socialists) were even part of the party.

Governor’s Races

In Colorado, it appears that Democrat John Hickenlooper, reeling and running from the gun control legislation that he signed, barely retained office in a race that he would have otherwise easily won if he hadn’t inflamed so many gun owners. Future gun control in Colorado is a dead issue… at least for a while.

Connecticut governor Dannel Malloy retained office in his dark blue state due to a weak opponent and a sizable party advantage, and now enters a dangerous second term, where he must figure out how to live with more than 100,000 gun owners who refused to comply with the state’s “assault weapon” registration law. Largely ignored by the national media, Connecticut is a powder keg that could easily erupt into a civil war if Malloy dares to attempt confiscation of hundreds of thousands of firearms and millions of standard capacity magazines that citizens refused to register.

Across the border in neighboring New York Andrew Cuomo coasted to reelection as governor thanks to a massive downstate advantage in New York City, but has even less hope of enforcing the more onerous provisions of NY SAFE than Malloy does, with owners of over a million “assault weapons” in the Empire State refusing to comply.

And these three races were the bright spots for Democrat governors in 2014. Overall, it was a bloodbath.

Greg Abbott trounced Wendy Davis in Texas, and announced that he’d sign a bill legalizing the open carry of handguns just as soon as legislators put the bill on his new governor’s desk.

Anthony Brown, the hand-selected heir-apparent to the out-going anti-gun Martin O’Malley, referred to his opponent as a gun-loving “extremist” throughout the election. He was trounced, as Larry Hogan took his NRA “A-” rating to smash Brown by nine points in the deep blue state.

Incumbent Pat Quinn, who fought tooth and nail for gun control and recently proposed a state-level assault weapon ban in Illinois, was likewise convincingly defeated boy five points in the deep blue state.

In Maine, Gabby Giffords-backed Michael Michaud failed against NRA-backed incumbent Paul LePage

NRA-backed candidates also won in Alabama, Idaho, Kansas, Michigan, Nevada, Ohio, Oklahoma, Wisconsin, and Wyoming.

Do not expect any governors, in even traditionally blue states, to push gun control in the next few years. Instead, expect them to support a widening of concealed carry, and perhaps the call for a national concealed carry reciprocity act.

U.S. Senate

As important as the governor’s races were, all eyes were on the U.S. Senate races, where Republicans were expected to gain seats, and the big question was whether or not they would take control of the Senate, and if so, by how much.

While the dust is still settling, NRA-backed candidates in the Senate will be taking power as a result of the elections, and Democrats who supported gun control will be pondering their retirement plans.

Despite running the most expensive senatorial campaign in U.S. history, Kay Hagan was unseated in North Carolina by NRA-backed Thom Tillis.

In Kentucky, Democrat Alison Lundergan Grimes attempted to portray herself as a pro-gun candidate on the surface while supporting President Obama’s anti-gun policies, and was immediately crushed as the first Senate hopeful to fall election night to Second Amendment-supporting Mitch McConnell.

NRA-backed Senate candidates also won in Arkansas, Georgia, West Virginia, and Utah. The outcome in Alaska (where both candidates had NRA “A”-rating) will likely result in another Republican victory, and the Louisiana run-off in December is expected to see NRA-backed Bill Cassidy dethrone Democrat incumbent Mary Landrieu.

The stunning degree of upset in the Senate, along with the expansion of the control of the U.S. House of Representatives, means that gun owners have a real shot at passing gun-friendly bills on the national level.

[article continues on next page]

Bad News In Washington State

I-594, a backdoor gun registration scheme disguised and presented to voters as “merely” a background checks initiative, won convincingly, thanks to massive financial support from gun control-supporting billionaires. I-591, which would have (more or less) countermanded I-594, was crushed by a similar margin.

As a result of millions of dollars being poured into this campaign, normal gun owner activities, such as sharing firearms at the range, or loaning a firearm to a friend to go hunting, is now criminalized if background checks aren’t performed for each and every temporary “transfer”.

I-594 was a bill sold to the gullible by exploitative anti-gun billionaires, and liberal voters in Washington gladly voted away their essential liberty for the illusion of temporary safety.

Sadly, this will become the template for gun control attacks in coming elections, as duplicitous anti-gun billionaires will essentially buy laws in states allowing ballot initiatives. If gun owners and pro-gun groups do not quickly develop a viable line of attack that quickly exposes these “universal background checks” as nothing more than the Trojan horse they are for backdoor gun registries, then expect to see I-594 repeated to a general public too lazy to dig deeper on the issues.

Gun Control Groups Failed Overall

While Michael Bloomberg can crow about I-594, the other millions he’s poured into gun control candidates were essentially wasted. Candidates he supported, like Mark Udall and Kagan Hagan fell, while candidates he supported who won did so because gun control was a minor issue in those races. It is only because of these inconsequential races (in terms of the importance of pro-gun vs. anti-gun support as an issue) that Bloomberg gets to a ho-hum 50/50 success rate.

Gabby Giffords and her group, Americans for Responsible Solutions (ARS), proved to be utterly ineffectual.

The National Rifle Assocaition, once again, proved to be the “big dog” in gun politics, and helped secure the Republican majority in the U.S. Senate, grow the Republican majority in the U.S. House, and helped turn out of the vote in State-wide races that saw the United States “go red” to a degree it hasn’t in nearly 100 years.

Where We Go From Here

But what to do with these advantages?

National Concealed Carry Reciprocity

The obvious first target should be a national concealed carry reciprocity bill, a relatively easy thing to explain to constituents if pitched as being analogous to driver’s licenses. Every state has different standards for issuing driver’s licenses, and yet, we’ve long had national reciprocity… in retrospect, it seems silly to not have national reciprocity. Can you imagine having to obtain multiple driver’s licenses to drive from North Carolina to New York, perhaps facing felony charges if pulled over in Maryland if you didn’t remember to get a driver’s license for that state?

Modernizing the National Firearms Act and Firearms Owner’s Protection Act

The National Firearms Act was conceived of in the early 1930s to counter a wave of Prohibition-era gun violence. As a result of the National Firearms Act, short-barreled rifles (SBRs),Short-barreled shotguns (SBSs), suppressors, and automatic weapons (machine guns) were onerously restricted.

While Most Americans will still support heavy restrictions on fully automatic weapons, opinions on SBRs and suppressors are radically changing in recent years. SBRs were always an arbitrary and artificial construct, and there is little difference between very popular rifle-caliber pistols with “arm braces,” and SBRs. Canada and other nations with more strict gun control laws than we have never recognized the arbitrary designation, and have not noticed a problem with crime as a result of these smaller and more practical short rifles. SBRs should be struck from the National Firearms Act entirely, and treated as normal firearms.

Likewise, suppressors are growing in popularity in the United States as citizens have discovered that they help reduce environmental noise pollution and are a health issue for shooters. Counter to what we see in the movies, suppressors do not turn a firearm “silent,” but instead typically reduce the damaging concussive blast of a gunshot to levels that cause less hearing damage. It might be surprising for Americans to learn, but suppressor use is actively encouraged in parts of Europe, where using a suppressor to reduce the noise associated with shooting is considered “neighborly.” Suppressors should likewise be struck from the NFA, and treated as firearms.

There is relatively little interest in removing short-barreled shotguns or machine guns from the National Firearms Act, and pushing their removal would damage the chances to push for SBR and suppressor reform.

At National Review, Charles C.W. Cooke makes an excellent case for revising “safe travel” provisions of the Firearms Owner’s Protection Act (FOPA), which insanely anti-gun legislators in New York,  New Jersey and elsewhere have all but undermined with seemingly unconstitutional laws that ensnare travelers and turn them into criminals.

I’d further argue that if FOPA comes up for review, Congress should take a long and hard look at repealing the Hughes Amendment to FOPA, which was passed on a very controversial voice vote, and which bizarrely (and perhaps unconstitutionally) set a time limit on gun rights. The Hughes Amendment banned the new manufacture of NFA-regulated machine guns for civilian sale after the law was signed in 1986. As a result, no new machine guns—and no legitimate “assault rifles”—can be manufactured by for collectors who pass the extensive background checks required of owners of NFA weapons. As bizarre as it sounds, a collector who can legally buy an M4 carbine made in early May of 1986 cannot by the exact same kind of firearm if it was manufactured in late May of 1986 or later. There is no constitutional justification for the arbitrary date, which was included as an amendment to the Firearms Owner’s Protection Act by a rabidly anti-gun New Jersey Democrat purely out of spite.