After the tragic shooting at Sandy Hook and the failed attempt to curb Americans' Second Amendment rights that happened soon afterwards, American dissatisfaction with gun laws has reached its highest levels since 2001, but, it's because the proportion of Americans who feel they're too strict has risen.

Gallup’s Rebecca Rifkin wrote on January 30 "Americans' dissatisfaction with U.S. gun laws and policies has increased to 55%, nearly matching the high of 57% in 2001. Forty percent are satisfied, down from the historical average of 47% since Gallup began asking this question in this way in 2001."

Additionally, Rifkin added, "this year, the gap between those wanting stricter gun laws and those wanting less strict laws narrowed as a result of a sharp increase in the percentage of Americans who want less strict laws, now at 16% up from 5% a year ago. Support for making gun laws stricter fell to 31% from 38% last January."

As a result, Refkin writes:

Americans have become more dissatisfied with gun laws over the past year, but this is attributable to a greater percentage who say gun laws are too strict, rather than not being strict enough. Americans' changing views could set the course for future gun law debates and legislation.

We've seen this issue time and again bury Democrats in elections. Colorado lost two anti-gun state senators in recall elections last September, where women, Hispanics, and blue collar workers banded together to protect their Second Amendment rights. These aren't the regular groups you see in the conservative camp. It also proves that the pro-Second Amendment rights coalition is much more bipartisan. Liberals like their guns too!

Lastly, the reason Democrats decided to go silent on this issue after 2000 is because it cost them the presidential election. Forget Florida, if Gore had won Tennessee ( his home state), West Virginia, and Arkansas, he would've won.

Instead, he tried to out-gun control his Democratic opponent in the primaries, Sen. Bill Bradley (D-NJ), which cost him dearly.