I think it boils down to seniority. The old libs have the seniority, and they will get the Chairs of the important committees where things like AWB2 will get their start. The action will all be in committees, and the new centrists will have to take a hell of an earboxing if they want to vote not to refer these bills out of committee.

Yes, new Representatives are responsible to their electorates, but they are, under our wonderful two-party system, primarily responsible to their Party leaders. It matters not whether they please the electorate, if they DON’T please the Speaker or their Committee Chairs, they don’t get any Party support for re-election.

Yes, I’ve wondered about that serendipity of shootings.

School shootings SHOULD prove the futility of gun control because schools are law-imposed gun-free zones. Gun-free zones only make for captive unarmed victims for criminal and/or deranged shooters. If guns were the problem, then these shootings would be happening at places like police stations and gunshows.

If rational thinking was the rule, more school shootings should result in “media frenzies” calling for more guns in schools in the hands of principals and teachers:

In Israel, teachers and parents who serve as school aides go armed at all times on school grounds, with semi-automatic weapons. Since this policy was put into effect, terrorist attacks in Israeli schools have dropped to zero. The only recent exception was the tragic case of a group of schoolchildren who were murdered by an Arab gunman as they visited the “Zone of Peace” on the Jordanian border. The Jordanians specifically requested that the Israeli teachers and chaperones leave their weapons behind … which they did.
–Vin Suprynowicz, “Pining for the Peaceful Paradise of an Omnipotent State”

I find it curious that those seem to happen with just perfect timing to bolster Democrat gun control pushes in Congress. There is just something uncanny about the serendipity of their occurrences.

I think what’ll happen is many of the “blue dogs” will go to Pelosi before the start of the next session and tell her if she pushes them on gun control she’ll get it shoved back in her face. I expect that gun control will then quietly disappear as an issue for the next two years.

Unless, of course, there’s another Columbine, with accompanying Media frenzy. Then all bets are off.