It's a political tactic that doesn't belong to one side or the other. Pick an issue that you know a particular base will not give on and you guarantee their vote (if they vote).
If you really want to walk into the bizarro world of politics in this country, look up the origination of 'liberal' and 'conservative' in US politics. John Locke was known as a 'liberal' in his time. 'Liberal' standing for 'liberty'. Yet gazillions of people who now believe themselves to be, or label themselves 'conservative', frequently label their political counterparts as 'liberal' as if it is some sort of a put-down Take our incredibly confused, but linguistically gifted Ronin for example. 200ish years ago, he would have been sucking the crown's junk. At least by definition.
Its unfortunate that so many view politics in our country as a sport with only 2 teams in the league.
I do believe that the current elections in our state are going to be a big success for the Republican party. I certainly hope so at least. Not because I agree with them 100% on every issue, but because I hope it will send a very strong message that 2A rights aren't a left or a right issue. It's a non-issue because it isn't open to debate or legislation aside from an repeal of an untouchable constitutional amendment. Get 2A and a handful of other issues off the table and we can get back to some real and meaningful political discourse in this country... which I believe is healthy and very much American.