AP Photo/Charles Krupa, File

Delaware is smack-dab in the middle of one of the most anti-gun sections of the United States. It’s not the most anti-gun state by a long shot, but it’s surrounded by some of the worst of the lot. So, it would stand to reason that it would adopt some of the more popular gun control schemes out there.

However, it seems Delaware’s declined to pass an assault weapon ban, which is big.

After failing to pass gun control legislation, Democratic lawmakers and the governor admit they’ve lost the battle this year.

It helps explain why Sunday’s gun rights rally on the steps of Legislative Hall on the last day of this year’s session looked more like a picnic than a protest.

The rally was hosted by Delaware Gun Rights, which formed in 2018 in response to gun control bills introduced that year.

The group is largely credited with stopping this year’s gun control efforts by pressuring union members and threatening Democratic campaign cash.

Three bills were stifled this year that would have banned certain semi-automatic weapons, required a permit to buy and own a gun and capped magazines at 15 rounds.

Now, this is big for Delaware gun owners, but it may well be huge for the rest of the nation as well.

We all know that support for gun control ebbs and flows. In the wake of a major mass shooting, we see the support for gun control spike. Then it takes a while for it to go back down.

We had a trio of major mass shootings that happened in short succession. First, it was Las Vegas, followed by Sutherland Springs within the same month, followed a few months later by Parkland. That kept things riled up pretty good and gave gun control activists a significant boost. After all, look at all the gun control we’ve seen passed at the state level.

However, Delaware’s refusal to pass an “assault weapon” ban–one of the more popular and better-supported measures the gun control lobby has been pushing–may well represent that the pendulum is starting to swing back toward a more sensible era regarding guns.

You see, for one thing, Delaware is a definite blue state. It’s very blue, with Democrats holding sizeable majorities in both the House and Senate. Despite that, they didn’t get some of these gun control bills passed. Why? It looks like there wasn’t enough popular support for these measures despite what we’re hearing come out of the Democrats of late.

Republicans on shaky ground when it comes to reelection are no different than any other politician. They’ll support measures that will help ensure their reelection. Yes, that includes gun control.

So it certainly looks like no one there was too worried about losing reelection.

A year ago, though, I wouldn’t have imagined the same holding true.

It seems that the public is starting to wake up. They’re starting to calm down and recognize that none of those shootings happened because of a lack of gun control. They happened because of factors well beyond that, factors we haven’t even started to consider.

Delaware’s refusal to pass these gun control measures may well signal the end of the gun control push as we’ve been experiencing it.

Anti-gunners will continue, no doubt. David Hogg will run his mouth, and Shannon Watts will continue to beclown herself, but fewer and fewer people will be listening.

That’s a good thing for the United States.