Yeah the public mood regarding the 2nd amendment is quite different in Nevada and Kentucky than it is in New York, New Jersey, California and the DC Beltway area. If the democrats lose 6 seats in the Senate, then Harry Reid will be the minority leader and he knows it. I am sure he would be really pissed if an asault weapons ban passed the senate and failed to pass the house and in 2014 (when Obama will not be on the ballot and voter turnout is historically older and minority turnout tends to be lower) the democrats lost the senate anyways.
The public's acceptance for gun control is not nearly what it was back in the early 1990s...when the first "Assault Weapons" ban was passed. I think that two major changes have had an enormous impact on how the public views gun control. The first was the Supreme court ruling on the "Heller" case. The second was the changes in the concealed weapons laws in most states. I used to go to gun stores and ranges in the metro Detroit area in the 1990s and you would see almost exclusively white males in their 30s, 40s and 50s. I was at one last week and a different one yesterday and half the people were young women in their 20s... whites, blacks and asians. Since police protection is non-existent in Detroit (except for the downtown area) a huge amount of African Americans now are getting Concealed Pistol Licenses. I have seen entire black church groups taking the concealed weapons courses offered at suburban gun ranges. These new licensees are not for the most part buying revolvers...they are buying semi-automatics...Glocks, Smith & Wesson M&Ps, HKs, SIGs and etc.
The democratic party often accuses the republicans of being "out of touch", but on the gun issue, the extremist like Diane Feinstein are even more out of touch. They read some poll and think that most of the country want politicans to disarm them, and often times after incidents like Newtown there is a big spike up in gun control support, but will that emotion still be there in 2014? More likely than not, the pro-gun forces will still be fired up and angry and showing up to vote in 2014.