Gun Control and the West

From today's OpinionJournal.com:

"Nevada has long been the Wild West of U.S. politics. With one industry dominating its economy, a small, collegial political class and an inexpensive media environment, the Silver State has often attracted the unscrupulous, the incompetent or the eccentric politician... Now, however, Nevada will host the Democrats' second presidential caucus in 2008, right behind Iowa and ahead of the New Hampshire primary. The Mountain West is all the rage in Democratic politics, and not without reason. As political scientist Thomas F. Schaller argued in his recent book, 'Whistling Past Dixie,' once the Democrats surrendered on gun control, they put the West back in play" -- Las Vegas Sun political reporter J. Patrick Coolican, writing in the L.A. Times.