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So from everything I've been reading and seeing, the background check has been somewhat gutted.  Gun rights advocates won in the ban against so-called "friends and neighbors" gun sales, where people can still sell to relatives without requiring the buyer to go through a background check.  And I'm not clear on this, but I believe the idea of registering gun owners -- to me, an absolute necessity -- is also dying. David Weigl at slate.com notes that the NRA feels it's "winning" because, even though they're losing, in their minds, some of their "rights," they're gaining members opposed to any expansion of gun control.  But Weigl also reports that they can't really consider themselves winning because it's become open season on members, something this country has not seen since the 1990s. Anyway. . .so at least gun control advocates have topped the first hill, "defeating (in the Senate) an effort by conservatives to derail a...

A scary headline in my local newspaper last week read, "Blumenthal, NRA boss find common ground."  Scary because Democratic Sentator Richard Blumenthal, Connecticut's former attorney general known for challenging illegal drug company marketing practices, cracking down on health insurance companies for fraudulent policies, and others, now can agree with Wayne LaPierre, whose response to Sandy Hook was arm the schools? Phew!  That's a run-on sentence. But what is most frightening to me is that Blumenthal, who has campaigned so agressively for the common man, now believes we're probably not going any further than background checks -- important as they may be -- because the NRA will go along with that.  Forget banning assault weapons.  Registering buyers at gun shows, and everywhere.  Illegal gun prosecutions -- which LaPierre bet Blumenthal will not rise even after the Newtown massacre. Is the best we can hope for, background checks?  I'm not den...