After a gunman killed 32 people at Virginia Tech in 2007, a bill to require mandatory background checks for arms purchases at gun shows failed to make it out of committee in the Virginia State Senate. It was blocked by all of the Republicans on the committee and two Democrats, who controlled the chamber at the time.

Now, more than a decade later, and after a gunman killed 12 people in Virginia Beach last week, a similar background check bill is being proposed as part of a package of legislation to be considered in a special session, which Gov. Ralph Northam called for on Tuesday.

And State Senator John S. Edwards, a rural district Democrat who helped stop that bill in 2008, has a different read today.

“I think we’re ready,” he said.

The politics around guns have changed in recent years, recast by a burst of student activism, deep-pocketed allies and a steady dirge of grim headlines from schools, churches, concerts — and now a Virginia Beach municipal building. A major test of the current political temperature will come with the coming special session in Virginia, a rapidly suburbanizing state that has seen striking partisan changes. The longtime headquarters of the National Rifle Association sits in a county, Fairfax, that Hillary Clinton won in 2016 by more than 36 points.