ATLANTA — Gun rights advocates entered the Trump era with high hopes. After years of frustration they thought a gun-friendly president and Congress would advance their agenda. At the top of the list: a gun-owner’s ability to bring a legal weapon across any state lines, a policy known as reciprocity.

But many of their favorite initiatives have stalled in Washington, set aside as the city is closely watching the investigations into President Donald Trump’s administration. Republicans are focused on other priorities, especially health care, but also keeping gun rights on the back burner may be the fact that because they are, in fact, a heavy lift.

Congress faces a public weary of mass shootings, terror attacks and random violence — most recently in the shadows of the nation’s capital when a man disgruntled about Trump and conservatives opened fire on a ballfield where Republican congressmen were practicing for a baseball game, injuring five people including a House Republican leader. And while a recent Pew study showed Americans pretty much split on support for gun control, specific provisions like keeping guns away from the mentally ill or those on watch lists are actually quite popular.

“Reciprocity in particular is going to prove to be a harder sell,” said Robert Spitzer, chairman of the political science department at State University of New York at Cortland. “Think gun-toting civilians in Times Square. It’s going to be a hard sell, and the Republicans will have to squander what few political resources they have to push the bill along.”

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