"The real NRA nut says If the government can take our guns, then after that they can take our freedoms.

"But what happened with the patriot act was the government said is No, no, no. Keep the guns, just give us the freedoms.

"And they said WE GET TO KEEP THE GUNS!

"If you wrapped the request in a flag, they'd line up to surrender the freedoms. They just really want the guns so that they can protect the guns."

Gould actually got this more or less right on single-issue gun rights folks -- which also got a larger number of Dems elected in '06 than they like to admit, especially in rural areas (see Jim Webb).

Now, having said that, the firearm owning populace as a whole has long been VERY divided on PATRIOT. (Witness the strength of Ron Paul with gun owners, which should be an indicator.) There was definitely not universal support for it during W days amongst NRA and other 2ndA groups, and still is not.

You will also find a HUGE amount of apolitical behavior in the shooting hobby community. "Whatever" is a very common political affiliation.

But it seems that the only "freedom" that the NRA/GOP base cares about, even while they rail against the goverment, is the 2nd Amendment. Don't they know that when the 2nd Amendment kicks in, that means that every other freedom is gone?

And when that happens, guess what, you might have an AR-15 or AK-47, the other side will have M-4 carbine with grenade launchers, Bradley fighting vehicles, Apache Attack helos and F-16 fighter/bombers.

Talk about outgunned.

The same can be said of any single-issue political stance. People focus on a narrow aim (abortion, same-sex marriage, guns, taxes, what have you) pro or con and let the bigger picture go hang.