”In the 1990s, the Democrats tried to impose modest gun controls. For example, in 1994 President Bill Clinton signed a ban on assault weapons—military-type rapid-fire rifles with no conceivable civilian use except perhaps to defend one’s home against a whole gang of drug-dealers. President Bush allowed this ban to lapse in 2004, however, and the Democrats are convinced that gun control helped them lose elections in 1994 and 2000. ”