Originally Posted by
wreave
It's interesting so many of you say you won't associate with people who are anti-gun.
A couple years ago, I was at a thing at my daughter's school, and heard one mom telling another mom (short version) that her child was playing at some other child's house, the one mom saw that the other mom had a Tea Party t-shirt on, and now won't let her daughter play there anymore. The mom to whom she was telling this story agreed, like it was the obvious conclusion. I was disgusted.
Frankly, this doesn't seem much different.
If we self-select out of social situations with people who don't agree with us on hot-button issues, how will we ever teach them? How will they come to know that gun owners are normal people who aren't crazed lunatics that are one bad day away from snapping and taking out half the city? I guess my political stance is hard to put in a box (I typically vote R, but have views that would be considered antithetical to someone of almost any political persuasion), so if I refused to have friends who didn't agree with me, I'd be pretty lonely. But really - yeah, people who have political views you don't agree with can really rub you the wrong way sometimes. Are they people you can have a friendly conversation with? Or are they jerks? If they're jerks, avoid spending time with them because they're jerks, not because of their political views. Likewise, if they're good people, enjoy the time you spend with them regardless of their politics.
I know plenty of pro-gun people (or people who share one or more of my other political views) that really aren't that great to spend time with. I know plenty of people that I disagree with on several key issues, but that are still good people. Sometimes we talk politics and I hope to sway them, or at least test my own beliefs and ability to back them up. Sometimes we avoid the controversies and discuss other things.
It just seems not only sad to pull ourselves into a closed community, but also contrary to our goals of expanding gun ownership and encouraging more people to take up shooting sports and personal defense.