Or at least, that's been the appearance of things.

That hasn't stopped a number of Democrats from trying to advance gun control. Much of that is grandstanding. It's putting on a show for the gun control groups to make sure they keep sending money to their re-election campaigns. But is that all that's going on?

I ask because a New Jersey Democrat says he believes gun control can and will pass, and then he tells us why he figures that.

Josh Gottheimer wants congressional action on bipartisan gun bills and for that to happen, he needs Republican support.

Good luck.

Gottheimer, though, is optimistic.

He said Monday that House Republicans, whose margin is quite slim, are going to need help from Dems on various issues in the waning weeks of the current session.

And knowing that there is some bipartisan backing for basic gun laws, the congressman says there’s “no reason” for such bills not to be voted on.

We’ll see.

Like most Democrats, Gottheimer, who represents CD-5, is a proponent of “common sense” gun laws.

Gottheimer doesn't say exactly what issues he figures House Republicans need so bad that they'll advance his anti-gun agenda, but he seems confident they will. That agenda includes universal background checks, a measure that would allow gun purchases to be held indefinitely if a NICS check is delayed, and a new federal assault weapon ban.

Apparently, he believes there actually is bipartisan support for those measures, so it wouldn't be a leap to figure that at least some Republicans would be willing to sell out their base in order to help Democrats.

I'd like to say there's not a chance in hell of that happening, but I can't.

Gun voters aren't turning out like they used to. Republicans also know that we don't have anywhere else to go, really, so they don't feel like they need to worry too much about us. 

So it's not out of the realm of possibility that, in order to get Democrats on board with some other policy positions, they'd favor at least some gun control bills.

But at the end of the day, what we're seeing is that Democrats plan to hold other measures hostage until and unless Republicans sign on for these anti-gun measures, all of which will drastically change the landscape of gun ownership in America. The passage of any of these should terrify anyone if they just pause to think about it for a moment.

Universal background checks mean that the government will have a way to determine who has guns and who doesn't since there's paperwork for every lawful gun sale from that point on. It might be a clunky system as things currently stand, but it could be done, and that's scary.

Ending the so-called Charleston loophole is a problem because the three-day limit on waiting for an NICS check was there in the first place to prevent people from having to wait indefinitely for a gun sale simply because NICS dragged its feet. Remove that and one can create all kinds of delays for gun sales for ordinary Americans who have never even had a speeding ticket. This would likely dissuade people from even bothering to buy a gun in the first place.

Most of the new assault weapon ban proposals aren't about AR-15s, but any and all semi-automatic firearms, which means they want to take the guns most useful in protecting us against a tyrannical government. If you can't see why that's a problem, then you clearly haven't read enough history.

And Gottheimer thinks all of this can pass before the first of the year.

That should terrify you.