Bloomberg recently engaged in some yammering about how anti-gun folks need to replicate the strategy of the NRA. I agree with Jacob:
Good advice except for one, tiny problem: antigunners do not have a voting constituency.  The organizations which represent them are largely just front groups for professional politicians and activists which are funded by large foundations including Joyce and Tides.  They can’t turn out people to vote because they aren’t membership-based; they’re mostly astroturf.
That’s the beauty of it. They couldn’t replicate our success even if they wanted to. They cling bitterly to the notion that polling matters. It does not. If it did, Pennsylvania would have free market liquor right now. But the fact of the matter is, people don’t care enough about boozing it up free market style to actually turn it into a real political movement, and hold politicians accountable for results. Without passion, there can be no movement. We have passion, in large number. Their passionate folks are infinitesimally small in comparison.
Also there’s a polarity shift in the guns issue. back in the 90s There was bi-partisan support for banning guns, and the true 2nd Amendment supporters (ie: The People who didn’t think the founding fathers were thinking of ducks and deer when they wrote the bill of rights) were fringe right-wing Republicans and Libertarians.
Now Gun rights are supported by a majority of people, while the anti-rights groups have nothing left but “Progressive” Extremists, and there are only a handful of them who aren’t Baby Boomers.
That’s a really tough row to hoe.
We’re growing a new generation of gun owners too, while as you implied the anti’s are dying off. That’s why it would be so hard for someplace like Britain to regain gun rights, it’s pretty far removed from them now as far as I can tell.
“Their pay-ssionate folks are infinitesimally small in comparison.”
FTFY. ;-)