Gun control laws will be to the 2008 election cycle what the abortion issue was to the 2000 and especially 2004 elections: a top wedge issue used by Republicans to attempt to win-over voter groups deemed essential to electoral victory.

It makes sense in a year in which the white, rural voter with a high school education or less seems to be the demographic group most hotly pursued by both Democrats and Republicans. Statistically, the most likely of the 80 million Americans to own guns are men, whites and southerners.... the very group that voted for Sen. Hillary Clinton in the Democratic primaries, not for the presumptive party nominee, Sen. Barack Obama.

Don't make the mistake of thinking that only Congressional Republicans support pro-gun rights. A small and growing minority of Senate and House Democrats are decidedly against more restrictions on private ownership and use of guns. In the 2006 mid-term elections, three newly elected senators, most notably Sen. Jim Webb of Virginia, and 11 new House Democrats, are pro-gun rights advocates.

And that's no accident: the powerful and extremely well-funded National Rifle Association made lucrative campaign contributions to 60 Democrats in the 2006 elections, in addition to the hundreds of loyal Republican recipients of its lobbyist largesse.

To help you understand this surprisingly complex issue, take the time to read my new article, Pros & Cons of Gun Ownership & Use Laws, which includes a succinct outline of the pros and cons, constitutional controversies and new judicial rulings, a brief legislative history, the role of lobbyists and lobbyist money, and the vast political implications for the 2008 presidential race.

One sad, black-and-white fact about federal gun law legislation: lobbyist money rules the day and runs the show in Congress...not the desires of the American people, most who "feel less safe as more people in their community... carry guns," per a Harvard School of Public Health study.

(Photo: Christopher Furlong/Getty Images)