If I was an arbitrator who had to declare a "winner" I would say that the antis got their asses handed to them. Obviously, this isn't remotely how the MSM reported it (OMG IT'S GABBY!). I watched/listened to the entire hearing from start to finish and there's a few things that I observed:
1. The gun control advocates (Democrats) came at this from an almost purely emotional viewpoint. Everything was about, "I have a 3 year old little girl at home" or "We have to do something for the children" or "Too many criminals are buying guns illegally at gun shows!".
2. The gun control opponents (Republicans) came at this from a well-prepared, factual, logical, reasoned approach and viewpoint. Some used visual aides, some spoke about their own familiarity with guns and how things are "in the real world". Most cited the regularity in which law abiding citizens use guns to rightfully defend themselves and their families. The visual representation of adding a pistol grip to an exempted Ruger semi-auto to make it "evil" was priceless.
The general ebb and flow consisted of the "magazine limit and AWB" topic being raised then just as quickly shot down, followed by an immediate response by the antis of, "shit! ok, ok, back to universal background checks!". I came away from this feeling extremely confident that DiFi's AWB bill has a snowballs chance in hell of passing and that universal background checks have a pretty decent chance. I still think someone needs to buy David Kopel a beer and Wayne LaPierre some Xanax.
My concerns continue to be at the state level.