Read: Gun control is not impossible

But flash forward to the present day. Democrats have indeed figured the issue out—by morphing from wimps to warriors on gun reform.

Largely overlooked during the government stasis in Washington is the news that House Democrats celebrated their return to power by touting legislation to expand background checks that would cover most firearm purchases—even those made at gun shows and online. The chief sponsor, Representative Mike Thompson of California, was once a recipient of NRA money and a B+ rating from the NRA. But now he’s hailing the gun-reform bill as “a decisive step to help save lives,” with strong support “from public polling to the ballot box.”

The Democrats’ championing of gun reform is not currently a first-tier story, but a new massacre would likely make it so (although the shooting deaths Wednesday of five people in a Florida bank has barely registered). Going forward, there will be a vocal counter-narrative to the ritual Republican “thoughts and prayers,” and the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision this week to take a gun case that could expand Second Amendment rights will further fuel the issue. But this time the Democrats, unlike their forebears in the recent past, will not be firing blanks.

Read: America’s gun-culture problem

The political winds have decisively shifted. According to the exit polls released last November, 59 percent of the voters in the congressional elections favored “stricter gun-control measures,” with only 37 percent in opposition. Of those who supported more gun control, 76 percent voted for House Democratic candidates. The NRA nevertheless insisted in a postelection statement that “gun control was not a decisive factor on election day,” but it appears that the ever-mounting national casualties—from Sandy Hook to Parkland to the Pittsburgh synagogue, with 116,000 shooting victims annually, 35,000 deaths annually, and historically high gun violence in schools—have undercut the NRA’s power and its purist defense of the Second Amendment.

At ground level, perhaps the strongest electoral evidence was the race for Gingrich’s old district in suburban Atlanta. A Democrat won there for the first time since 1979, and the gun issue was pivotal. Lucy McBath, a self-described “mother with a mission,” entered elective politics to stand up for gun victims, prompted by the shooting death of her teenage son. Meanwhile, in suburban Denver, Jason Crow, a former Army Ranger, ran a gun-reform campaign and knocked off Mike Coffman, an NRA-backed House incumbent. In red Texas, the Democrat Lizzie Fletcher, armed with a long list of gun-reform proposals, toppled John Culberson, an incumbent with an A rating from the NRA. In Arizona, the Democrat Ann Kirkpatrick—who had earned an A rating from the NRA in 2010—won her House race after stumping for tougher background checks and a new assault-weapons ban.