I'm saying, Bobert, that the most virulent purveyors of rhetoric on behalf of either the Republicans or the Democrats are the people who are driving the debate on gun ownership to extremes and that that is happening because of the usual partisan divisions. People aren't thinking, they're engaging in stereotyping. People on both sides are guilty of that.

On the conservative side the "liberals" are stereotyped in ways I'm sure you're quite familiar with....limp-wristed, bleeding hearts, soft on crime, favoring the rights of criminals over the rights of victims, effeminate lesbo/gay latte drinking, tree-hugging, Ivy League Evian mineral water sippers...etc...most of which is nonsense.

On the liberal side the "conservatives" are stereotyped in ways that we should all be very familiar with by now: ignorant, redneck, Nascar-watching, simple-minded, fascist, dumbass Bible-thumping, mouth-breathing, kuckle-dragging idiots named Bubba who drive pickup trucks with gun racks in the back and whose biggest dream is to attend Wrestlemania 22. ;-D

Yup, it's easy to just reduce people who don't share your opinions to some sort of gross stereotype like that, and it's fun! I see it done here all the time, and I see the glee (and the malice) with which it is done, because most people here are on the "liberal" side, so they feel quite safe doing it.

It's sort of equally pointless on either side of the debate, because it doesn't touch on any real issues or ideas, it's just emotional bloodletting.