Defeat of the anti-gun movement...

ROXRAN · Nov 5, 2004

Originally posted by Deckard
ROXRAN...

I will be happy when, and if, we see the demise of the "one issue" Republican. Admittedly, that's from my perspective as a Democrat, but I have a very old friend who's an ardent, even "rabid," gun owner (as in, he spends way too much money on them, has a small, but legal, arsenal, and could make a down payment on a house with what he's spent on them... he doesn't have that much money laying around, and could use a new house!), who is liberal on social issues, yet sees a plot behind every attempt to have any sort of regulation. He votes Republican only because of this issue. He's not religious, he's not prejudiced (except for anyone who even hinted at gun regulation), he's not wealthy, he doesn't live in the suburbs, he scraps to get by on what he earns... in short, he is nothing like a "typical" Republican. In fact, he's not really a Republican at all. He comes across like one when he starts in on the various "plots" to take away his guns.

That bothers me. I'm a gun owner myself, but have always been able to separate that from my politics. He has become obsessed with it. The worst thing, in my opinion, that ever happened to him was to become involved with the NRA. He completely buys into everything they say, about anything. And he closes his mind to any thing, person, or idea they have told him is against gun ownership, true or not. He's caught up in the worse sort of demagoguery. I could think of several analogies from history that I could use to compare his experience with the NRA to, but I won't, because much of it would be laughed off.

This is a guy, a few years younger than me, that I let tag along to dozens of concerts in our hippie days. He was "of the Left," in the jargon we currently use, until he got caught up in this NRA/gun mania. I can sit and tell him about how we went hunting, while we were hippies in the '60's, and he'll smile and laugh about it. Then, if I ask him where that fellow went that I had so many good times with, and why we don't seem to be able to have much in the way of a conversation any longer, unless it's about the "old days," then his eyes glaze over, and he starts muttering about guns, the NRA, that ******* Clinton, those ******* Democrats trying to take away his guns, and it goes downhill from there.

I don't see much of him, because he's become obsessed with this so much. I've asked him if I've changed a lot from the guy who did so much with him, and he'll say, "No. Except that you support those (fill in several blanks)." I'll reply that, if anything, I'm probably more conservative today than I was then, and it matters not. He's already launched into a rant that sounds like it's been written by someone else. I find it sad and disturbing. ROXRAN, I understand your passion for your hobby, but have you ever objectively considered that, perhaps, you've gone too far? That this one issue has become the governing factor in much of your life? And that maybe it's unhealthy?

Just a thought, from someone who knows more about this than you might think.

Keep D&D Civil!!
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Deckard, Thank-you for that well written post. You are not only intelligent, but you show a unique ability to connect better than most of the other posters...I sincerely appreciate that. To answer your question...maybe...

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Defeat of the anti-gun movement...

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