I realized that I did not respond directly to the opening post, so here goes:
My problem with those last 6 words is that I don't see "gun owner" and "anti" as opposites.
That is true, for a couple of reasons.
I personally know of many people who do not own a single gun but have no problem with anyone who does own guns and supports their right to do so.
And that's great! Though I don't really expect a whole lot of help from them on voting day. If their vote helps us at all it is by happenstance. Like when someone who hates gay people happens to vote the same way I do because he thinks my anti-gun-control candidate will try to chase the gay people away.
Politics makes strange bedfellows.
I also know people who do own guns but do not believe that everyone should have unlimited access to firearms and don't mind jumping through a few hoops in order to own their guns. Some would call that latter group both "gun owner" and "anti,"
The polite term is "worthless hypocrite," if you're looking to be specific.
I don't see gun ownership itself as being a defining characteristic, it's your view of gun control (or lack thereof that defines you).
On this one issue, yes. Unfortunately, that's come to be a "liberal" or "conservative" marker which I think does us more harm than good. (You'll note, we don't tolerate that kind of fence-building here.)
To me, the label "anti" represents the "nobody should own guns" crowd.
Well...that, and a pretty wide swath beyond that. You must include the "nobody should own
this or that gun" crowd as anits, don't you think? And the "nobody should have their gun in public" crowd, certainly. North of that line I guess it might get a little "grey." Is a "universal background check" supporter truly "ANTI?" Well, no. The friend of my enemy is who, again?
The opposite of this is the folks that feel you should be able to purchase guns from vending machines, no questions asked, no ID required, etc.
Ahhh, so "normal" folks? Those who feel the law was ok prior to 1968 when the government told us we were all about to get so much safer and more ... controlled?
I'm guessing that there are many Americans that fall somewhere between these two extremes. They are the shades of grey, the moderates. To tell these people that they must be either a "gun owner," and therefore, automatically, 100% against any form of gun control, or an "anti" who want's to take away everyone's guns, must be more than a little off-putting.
Well... we can coat it all with as much sugar as it takes, and I do firmly believe in the
realpolitik that says you get the VOTES you can wherever you can however you can. In the end, it is the result that counts. If that means we have to gentle along our less cognizant brethren, so be it.
I've seen many threads here (and elsewhere) that wonder why there are 40 million gun owners but only 4.5 million NRA members. I suspect that there are a whole lot of gun owners who chose not to be represented by the NRA-ILA.
There are some who definitely have made a decision that they do not like the NRA-ILA and will not "be represented" by them. We even have some of those folks as members here. There are MANY, MANY, MANY, MANY more (millions) of gun owners who just do not friggin' care about the law or their RKBA. Don't think about it, don't know about it, don't want to. Other things are on their minds, politically, and their gun ownership is just a random minor facet of their life, like their preference for wine over beer or whatever. I'm reading a book right now about a fellow who traveled throughout the country with his wife in an RV, and he casually mentions that he carried along his .357 mag. Just lists it in along with the other stuff he packed, like a spare jack and extra pair of glasses. Now, he could have been in severe trouble in a few spots because of that, but having a gun wasn't a "thing" for him, so he didn't stop and research the laws in all those places he'd go, and would have been oh-so-surprised to find out suddenly that it was a big friggin' deal and maybe he should care. He's one of millions. Mostly they stay off the radar, and mostly they go on not caring. What'cha gonna do?
Keep in mind, conservatives usually vote conservative and liberals usually vote liberal, they cancel each other out. The outcome of any election is in the hands of the moderates who could go either way.
Yup. One thing we can try to do is break down the lib-v-con aspect and try to wrench the gun control plank out of the lib platform. Then we don't have to care which way folks want to throw their vote. But that seems like a long, long row to hoe.