http://thehill.com/polls/276869-the-hill-poll-voters-expect-tighter-gun-laws-

Polls are bearing something quite clear. A near-majority of Americans want stricter gun laws. The nation’s leading gun-rights group, the National Rifle Association, doesn’t want the feds to touch the gun laws.

So, here is where we stand. More Americans than not are telling lawmakers one thing; the NRA, meanwhile, is telling them something else. Who will members of the House and Senate heed?

My guess is that the NRA is going to win this argument once more.

Those polls declaring a plurality of support for tighter laws also indicate Americans don’t believe necessarily they’ll reduce gun violence. That is what the NRA has been saying.

But there seems to be something fundamentally wrong with the a political system that puts more weight behind the moneyed special interests than it does with rank-and-file Americans whose only tool is their vote.

I’m acutely aware that most Texas Panhandle residents do not subscribe to the results determined by The Hill poll. Accordingly, the region’s congressman, Republican Mac Thornberry, is going to oppose tightening gun laws. So will the state’s two GOP senators, John Cornyn and Ted Cruz. But these three men represent a tiny fraction of the national electorate; their views on guns apparently aren’t even shared by a majority of Americans.

If they manage to win the argument and persuade their colleagues to keep their hands off existing federal gun laws, then we could argue that they’ve circumvented the will of the people.

And the National Rifle Association, arguably the nation’s pre-eminent single-issue lobby, has scored another victory.

I keep wondering: Why can’t Congress, the White House and these special interests forge a compromise that enacts tougher laws while protecting the Second Amendment? Are gun rights and stricter laws mutually exclusive principles? I think not.