I was surprised, too. Claire can sometimes be the Eeyore of the gun rights/civil liberty/freedom movements. It reminded me of everything positive that has happened in the past few decades. I live in state (MI) that has plenty of room for improvement, but people here seem to forget how bad things were. I started getting into guns and buying them in the early 1990's. At that time, getting a carry permit was almost impossible. A few counties were willing to give out permits if you could show a compelling reason, such as having to make night deposits or working in an area that was dangerous. Most counties would only give them to judges, retired cops, celebrities, and people that were politically connected. Within a few years, we were stuck with the federal AWB. Yes, things have certainly gotten better. AWB expired, we got shall issue, we can now own machine guns, suppressors, SBRs and SBSs.
The other big change I have seen is the attitude of most people towards gun control. When the AWB was passed in 94, there was tremendous bipartisan support. IIRC, a higher percentage of Republicans in the Senate supported it than Democrats. Both Reagan and Ford endorsed it. We still have the usual loudmouths calling for gun control, but it thankfully doesn't seem to go anywhere.
