As well they should be. Have a look at the graph published yesterday by Gallup.

There are plenty of gun-control true believers still out there, but the trendlines are all the other way. And in the sort of purplish rural districts where Democrats need to win to hold a majority in the House (think, for example, Pennsylvania), this issue is pure poison for them. Which is to say, in places where it matters, the gun-rights crowd has won this debate — decisively enough that the Dem leadership is actually cheering the Supremes’ decision insofar as it knocks this issue off the table for them in the fall. This is why I always laugh when a story sweeps the blogosphere about The One trying to grab people’s guns. He won’t do it, not because he doesn’t want to, necessarily, but because his party would never forgive him for the fallout.

In a Facebook post titled “Another Victory for the Second Amendment,” Palin wrote that the case “should leave little doubt that our individual right to keep and bear arms applies everywhere and is a right for everyone.”

[Harry] Reid essentially agreed, calling the right to bear arms “one of the essential freedoms on which our country was founded.”…

Rep. Zack Space (D-Ohio), a second-term Democrat representing a rural and small-town district in eastern Ohio, quickly sent a blast to his “Constitution-loving” constituents…

Also quick with praise were Democratic Reps. Tom Perriello of Virginia, Ann Kirkpatrick of Arizona and Travis Childers of Mississippi, all facing tough races in November and all representing districts with large rural components where gun ownership rights are sacrosanct…

The Democratic sigh of relief after the McDonald decision wasn’t exactly a surprise — 80 House Democrats and 19 Senate Democrats signed onto an amicus brief opposing the Chicago gun ban, a tacit recognition that, for many Democratic legislators, gun control advocacy is akin to political suicide.

Glenn Reynolds calls gun rights “the new normal,” and while he’s speaking constitutionally, he could be speaking politically as well. Exit quotation from the next justice: “I do think that Heller is the law going forward. I have not had, myself, the occasion to delve into the history that the courts dealt with in Heller. But I have absolutely no reason to think that the court’s analysis was incorrect in any way. I accept the court’s analysis and will apply it going forward.”