Wednesday April 17, 2013 will be remembered as a huge victory for the gun rights proponents – and it should be. Even with a sensational tragedy, countless victim stories, full-court press by the media and the Obama administration (but I repeat myself), the Senate couldn’t come up with the votes to pass any of the gun control measures before it.

Activists should hoist their drink of choice and salute themselves. They made their voices heard. That’s the good, and it’s very good.

The bad, in my opinion, comes is with the exception of Feinstein’s overreaching dream amendment, all of our wins were not because the majority of the Senate supported our side, but because there weren’t enough votes to block a filibuster. Just like British rights, that’s based on a rule that can be changed. Both sides have threatened to change that rule when they were frustrated by it. IMHO, at some point, the Senate will be dumb enough to actually change the rule. The point is we need a solid majority – not a solid-enough minority – to protect us from these bills in the future. And there will be more of this in the future. We won a huge battle, but not the war.

The ugly is that this defeat may drive the gun control advocates to the states. They’ve already won battles there in Colorado, New York, Maryland, and Connecticut. I expect to see more action on the state and local level, and I expect it to be more of this cloak-and-dagger, passed-in-the-middle-of-the-night action.

This battle is finished, and we salute those that stood with us, and rejoice in the outrage and lamentations of our opponents. Today we celebrate, for tomorrow the war continues.