"Sadly, some of the firearms forums I visit spew homophobic insults whenever the LGBT topic comes up. I've seen this even on some of the more mainstream forums. Horrid, crude insults of a type who's like is not visited upon any other minority group."
Oh, puh-lease. No more 'vile' than half the stuff said about gun owners in general these days, let alone various and assorted other minority/grievance/interest groups. Our side says some pretty gnarly stuff about anti's and liberals, too. Such is the internet unfiltered; deal with it, and try your best not to contribute to the venom. The only reason it may be more frequently directed towards one group is when the topic is relevant to them (i.e. the gay marriage case). And a moment's praise to the Mod staff here for not tolerating that baloney, making THR a veritable refuge in the storm of derp that is the internet. <maybe I'm paranoid, but bot technology is sufficiently advanced to easily perpetrate the majority of trolling/angry speech I see posted everywhere. it would not surprise me if bots are widely employed --by both sides, but especially by the one inhabiting Silicon Valley-- to bring ridicule down upon themselves and negatively frame the view they ostensibly support. much easier than programming bots to make erudite arguments>
Anyone else find it comical at this point how constant the refrain "I wish the Republicans would ditch the social issues set" has become online? It seems like practically everyone is desperate for them to ditch these divisive issues, or at the very least put them on the back burner for...ever. You'd think the Libertarian party would be drawing 30%-60% of the electorate by now, the way you hear people describe their political views. My sincere hope is that gay marriage is the beginning of a realignment of political priorities, and we get back to a more Federalist/Anti-Federalist party structure, even when the latter winds up a minority. The status quo is too fluid and duplicitous to do anything useful for us.
Last I heard, the Pink Pistols had numerous branches scattered about the country. But sadly, the fact that hotbeds of gay culture tend to be urban means they are uniformly liberal (after some point, yes, a minority is insignificant) and at present hostile to the Party of Guns (R). Going back to my realignment prediction, my hope is that the marriage decision settles the governance issues for gays enough that other issues they care about --like guns-- will override their previous party affiliation, and they will begin defecting to Republicans provided the platform issues are compatible. I had previously figured a reversal on marijuana policy would be the trigger (Rand is trying), but this could work, too, if the vocal/organizational effectiveness of the gay community is maintained in the transition.
"Minorities such as homosexuals, Jews, and blacks, (not to mention the majority female bloc) have high crime victimization rates.
They also tend to vote Left Liberal/Democrat which has them politically supporting restrictive gun control."
A group in trouble (real or imagined) is always looking for relief, which makes them vulnerable to shysters. A promise of a fix always outweighs a helping hand, let alone merely holding the door open for someone. Gun rights doesn't purport to do anything for anyone. Maybe if we actually did what we are always accused of --giving guns away-- we'd find more support among the poor, lazy, or inept out there, but alas we merely inform them of what they are missing and try to convince them their current benefactors are the cause of much of their current problems. Tough sell.
TCB
