After Newtown, four ways the NRA could change

1. Institutions can change. The NRA has become an implacable foe of gun control but that doesn’t mean it will always be. There could be glasnost in the NRA Kremlin, a recognition that the world has changed. It’s not a perfect analogy by any means but auto companies opposed seat belts and then accepted them as standard equipment. They fought air bags and then accepted them.

2. Hunters might triumph over the automatic crowd. At some point, it’s possible that hunters will feel less threatened by the spectre of gun control laws and be willing to assert themselves more. Of course, hunters are no more monolithic than “drivers” or “students” but they may not see themselves as having a vested interest in enormous magazines.