By Jonathan Martin & Alexander Burns @ NYTimes.com, Feb. 27

WASHINGTON — In Minnesota, a Democratic candidate for governor with rural roots is running from his past affiliation with the National Rifle Association. In South Florida, endangered House Republicans are embracing an assault weapons ban.

And in Ohio, the moderate Democratic candidate for governor, feeling heat from his left, is embracing a more stringent gun-violence platform than his past relations with the N.R.A. would suggest.

The mass shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Fla., has thrust gun rights into the midterm campaign, scrambling traditions in both parties as the debate shifts toward firearms restrictions.

A host of House Republicans and a handful of the party’s governors are beginning to distance themselves from their party’s gun-rights orthodoxy, signaling an openness to restrictions that reflects the rising anger among suburban voters. But Democrats are under even more pressure from within to recalibrate their position on the issue. Even as they attempt to reclaim governorships and congressional seats in red-tinged regions, moderates recognize that bearing the mark of the N.R.A. could be fatal in their primaries [.....]