Members of Congress are apparently so fearful of the National Rifle Association that they adjourned two weeks before the election without even calling a vote on a pending bill to require a seven-day waiting period before anyone can pocket the handgun he wants to buy. But Floridians demonstrated last week that the gun lobby may be losing its clout. In one of the most resounding defeats ever suffered by the N.R.A., 84% of the voters approved a proposition barring the immediate purchase of guns in the state.
While the N.R.A. outspent Handgun Control Inc. by a lopsided $100,000 to $25,000, the...