Localize gun issues. Loudly!
All across the red states and in rural areas of the blue ones we lose hundreds of thousands of voters who'd happily support progressive agendas, but don't because of this single issue. Shifting this group of voters would give us back the majorities we had from FDR until 1994. Dean is right about this and it doesn't get the play it deserves.
A few points.
Urbanites don't understand emotional and cultural significance this issue has with rural males and their families. It's a redneck thing, if you've never been a redneck, it won't make sense to you. Bizarre as it might seem to an urbanite, for a lot of country boys having your dad teach you to shoot and give you a .22 or a .410 shotgun for your 12th birthday (after you've proven your responsibility) is a rite of passage secularly equivalent to a bar mitzvah. To many this is the proudest moment in their young lives. To many hard-working underpaid dads it's a proud moment, too -a small window of pioneer independence and autonomy in an otherwise marginal life. To have the guv'mint come along and discredit it by treating one as a potential criminal (fingerprints, mugshots, etc.) is insulting and depressing to both father and son (and by extension the entire family). The emotional impact of this is what makes this such a strong single issue. It drives these people into the arms of right-wing even when they disagree with everything else they stand for. It tells them they aren't to be trusted. To be fingerprinted (short of being arrested) in a society as transparent (and mutually trusting) as small-town america is as intrusive (emotionally) as having one's telephone tapped.
Demographically, this issue had as much to do with creating Reagan
democrats as any other (this is when we lost the heartland). Plot and
compare the curves of restrictive national gun laws and voting patterns from the late `70's till now. The angry gun-owners who vote repug now are the children of lifelong democrats. This is what's wrong with Kansas. The anger and shame at being treated like a child and/or criminal outweighs common sense.
Gun control doesn't do any good. 30 years of these laws haven't reduced crime rates at all (while they've pissed off a lot of decent people). This is a lot like the war on drugs (rationalized because some druggies might eventually commit crimes) in that it attempts to pre-empt crime by designating potential criminals in advance of any crime being committed. These pre-emptive ideas (Iraq, anyone?) will always fail in any society short of an East German-style police state. This is what the NRA says (guns don't kill people, people kill people) and it resonates very strongly with average guys who'd never hurt anybody but want to plink a few bottles in the backyard or eat venison a couple of times a year. Laws ought to be about behaviours, not about objects with the potential to be misbehaved with (same thing with drugs). Prohibition failed for the same reasons. If we want to make laws to reduce gun crimes, how about life sentences for anyone who points a gun at another human (I'll bet the NRA would endorse this).
As for guns being bought in Nebraska and used in Chicago, NY, etc. there could be federal laws (interstate commerce) covering this that wouldn't criminalize law-abiding Nebraska locals. From what I (non-scientifically) hear, this isn't where urban crime guns come from anyway. As for guns being locally banished this was even true (and acceptable) back in wild-west Dodge and I think the NRA would have a hard time (fundraising) fighting it locally.
It's in the constitution! Very hard for arguments about civil liberties (gay
rights, reproductive rights, etc.) to resonate with those who see their clearly enumerated constitutional rights trampled on. This issue alone makes the left seem hypocritical to rednecks (it's the one that gets in their face). I suspect (anecdotally) a fair amount of rural support for other rights-infringing programs is driven by a sense of vengeance over this ("fuck you, pencilneck").
Personal note. I'm not an academic and I don't know if any useful polling exists on this. I live in a red state and I do blue collar work. I frequent greasy spoons, lumber yards, etc. and I talk to people. I canvassed for Kerry last year working blue collar neighborhoods. I didn't care much about this issue before then, but dozens of people I talked to ever day agreed with dems about everything else and still said they'd vote for bu$h because `they want to take away our guns'. I don't currently own a gun. When I did, the FID (firearm identification) process was deeply annoying -nothing like getting a driver's license (took a couple of weeks). It's the only time I've ever been fingerprinted (which seems to me like a 4th amendment violation).
If we take this issue off the wingers plate we'll have our majority back. We don't have to suck up to Xtian cranks on "moral" issues (that's a losing rear-gaurd action anyway, no pleasing them) and evil biznuts about taxes (like Hillary, Joe L., DLC want us to do). Until we do take this off the plate, these folks (the ones I live around and work with) won't listen to anything we say. We need to make an effort to explain this to our urbanite base and a very loud efford to communicate it to Joe Sixpack / Nascar Dad. The thing they hate most after the ones "who'll take their guns away" are the "fat-cat biznessmen".