Affiliation tends to blind us to the other side, but I think on gun rights the left perennially forgets that the right is not seeking to change the law, the left is, and nothing is ever offered except a slightly lesser change. I don't want a national gun registry, but many of us might except one in exchange for something else. Minor horse trading is pretty common but nobody wants to do the big stuff anymore. Guns are a big issue to the right, a principal issue, what would the left trade of equal value?
i honestly don't see much in the way of public safety that can be negotiated without some ideas of what you think an honest exchange of ideas would look like. as i've told you before, the government has a vested interest in protecting public safety. gun owners (and even the NRA) talk all the time about being a "responsible gun owner", but every day we see stories of people who are supposedly responsible accidentally shooting friends and family, in many cases resulting in death.
why do we need specific laws (like the Tiahrt amendment) which handcuff the collection of data for academic study, and limit the way law enforcement collects that data? explain to me how being a responsible gun owner or dealer means a store can "lose" over 600 guns in one year and only get a warning not to "lose" any more guns? especially a dealer which has been traced to several hundreds if not thousands of crimes committed with guns they have sold? if we want to talk about enforcing the laws we have, then let's start with actually enforcing the laws rather than throw our hands up in the air and say "oh well, nothing we can do about it now that so many guns are in circulation. if only we hadn't passed legislation preventing us from enforcing the laws we already have."
"That's the trouble with political jokes in this country... they get elected!" -- Dave Lippman