When I started working on Capitol Hill in 1980, the politics of gun control was certainly an issue in the Congress. But after a number of years of controversy, the issue now makes few major political waves even after a tragedy like the one last week in Colorado.
That's not a judgment on who is right or wrong, or what our naton's policies should be on guns - it's just the political truth of the fight over the Second Amendment, which has been tilted in favor of gun rights supporters for a number of years now.
Consider the Congress - even when Democrats controlled both the House and Senate after the 2006 and 2008 elections, there was really a working majority in favor of gun rights in both houses, as Democrats who favored gun controls were easily outnumbered.
And that support for gun rights was only strengthened by the victories of so many Republicans in 2010 races for the House and Senate.
If you read through President Obama's remarks in his Saturday radio address, there is compassion for the victims and their families, but nothing that even comes close to a call for action on gun control.
If you go back to the President's 2011 speech in Arizona a few days after ex-Rep. Gabby Giffords (D-AZ) was shot and seriously wounded, there is no talk by Mr. Obama of gun control.
It's much different than my first years as a reporter in the Congress.
Back in the late 1980's and early 1990's, there were repeated pitched battles on the Senate floor over restrictions on assault weapons, large magazines for those weapons and more.
In a 1990 crime bill, the Senate surprisingly voted 50-49 for a ban on certain types of semiautomatic assault weapons, a major - and unexpected - victory for gun rights supporters.
During that time, the work of Sarah Brady - her husband Jim had been wounded in the assassination attempt on President Reagan - had become the face of the push for gun controls in the Congress.
In 1993, the Congress approved the Brady handgun law and the instant criminal background check system for gun purchases. It was a big deal - and a big win for supporters of gun rights.
But the next year, Democrats made another big push on banning certain assault weapons and guns in a crime bill - and some believe that publicity led to losses in the 1994 elections.
It certainly wasn't the only reason Democrats lost, but in the years ahead, for a Democrat to survive in the South or in Red State America, going against the National Rifle Association was not a popular choice.
So, since the 1994 elections, gun control has not been an issue that Democrats have embraced with any kind of vigor on a national scale, except maybe in two examples - the aftermath of the Columbine attack ("the gun show loophole") and after Virginia Tech (dealing with gun purchases by the mentally ill.)
So, it wasn't shocking to watch my email inbox in recent days and see hardly a peep out of Democrats about the issue of gun control.
While the Democrats may control the Senate, they don't have anything close to a majority on gun issues - and they definitely don't seem to have an appetite right now to push for change, whether in Congress or in the Presidential race.
Just read this Q&A from Air Force One on Sunday, as reporters asked questions of White House Press Secretary Jay Carney and Obama campaign spokeswoman Jen Psaki:
Q Does the gun lobby just really preclude any sort of policy response in terms of access to firearms?
MR. CARNEY: I would say that the President's views on this are as he has stated and as he spelled out in the op/ed that was published in an Arizona newspaper, which is that he believes we need to take steps that protect Second Amendment rights of the American people but that ensure that we are not allowing weapons into the hands of individuals who should not, by existing law, obtain those weapons. And there are a number of steps that have been taken and a number of others that can be taken to accomplish that goal.
I don't have any -- the Department of Justice can provide more details in terms of some of the steps that we've taken involving making higher quantity and quality of information available in background checks, and other measures they've taken which I know they can provide to you, working with law enforcement agencies. But the President's view is that we can take steps to keep guns out of the hands of people who should not have them under existing law. And that's his focus right now.
Q In terms of like assault weapons or something like that, there's no renewed push for a renewed assault weapons ban?
MR. CARNEY: Well, as you know, there has been opposition to that since it expired within Congress, and I think -- I wouldn't argue with your assessment about that. So the President is focused on doing the things that we can do that protect Second Amendment rights, which he thinks is important, but also to make it harder for individuals who should not, under existing law, have weapons to obtain them.
Q Does the President believe that this issue of gun control should now have sort of a larger role in the campaign? It hasn't really been talked about much before this.
MS. PSAKI: I think this stage where this is so fresh and new for so many people, including the people in Colorado, who are still mourning the loss of their loved ones, will be for a long time, many people are still recovering, we're still learning what exactly happened here and more details -- that's where our focus is right now. And so it's really too early to say how this will play. And again, we're just taking it day by day. That's what our focus is today.
When I started working on Capitol Hill in 1980, the politics of gun control was certainly an issue in the Congress. But after a number of years of controversy, the issue now makes few major political waves even after a tragedy like the one last week in Colorado. That's not ...
