I’m on the email blast list for my favorite local range, Top Gun Shooting Sports just south of St. Louis. If you find yourself in the neighborhood, they’re definitely worth a stop. But besides the news that they now warrant every gun they sell for life and that Browning gun safes are selling faster than Tumms at a chili cookoff, their latest missive also carries a message about the “important political year ahead of us”. . .
In the coming months, we would like to remind everyone of what an important election year this will be for gun owners. Over the past several years, our industry has grown with thousands of new firearm owners. If we are going to keep our 2nd Ammendment Rights, we are going to have to work for it this year more than any. It is our job as citizens to be informed voters. To quote Wayne LaPierre, “This is the most dangerous election of our lifetimes”. It is time that we send a clear message to Washington that we as firearm owners will not stand by and let our rights be stepped on. For more information on how you can help, visit www.nra.org.
Just like abortion, gay marriage, socialized medicine and who the Kardashians are sleeping with this week, you don’t have to be too far to the right of center on the old bell curve to know that 2A rights tend to be a hot button issue. And you can see why someone who owns an operation like Top Gun would have an interest in how things go in November.
The advance of gun rights is certainly an important issue I take into consideration when deciding which oval to color in when I’m in the voting booth. It’s just not the only one that informs that decision. For me anyway.
Read through the gun blogosphere for more than 23 seconds and you’ll find all kinds of predictions about what candidate will or won’t be the worst thing to happen to gun rights since the assault weapons ban. That’s usually quickly followed by declarations of how this year it isn’t worth voting for either the Demublican or Republicrat candidate. Gun-wise, at least. So do tell…do you decide your vote based solely on gun issues or do you let other considerations factor into the equation?
Do you decide your vote based solely on gun issues or do you let other considerations factor into the equation?
Yes and no.
Does that mean maybe, maybe no, maybe both, and or maybe neither?
No.
“No.”
Did you mean to write know as in knowledge as in knowing a thing?
“It’s a great idea, but possibly not, and I’m NOT being indecisive.”
-Monty Python
No. Being a gay gun owner means I have to pick and choose those who wish to grant me one right while trying to strip away another.
Obama has pledged support for me in my private life, and made no commitment to gun grabbers, even though he has had plenty of chances. He has my vote.
Holy cow!! You own a gay gun?!?! Does make someone a snappier dresser when shot?
Why hasn’t TTAG pushed the gays with guns thing? Guns for illegal aliens made a splash.
Don’t be fooled. O’s evolution on this matter was purely political. Make sure to look at the entire spectrum of what he has accomplished and his abilities as a leader. This election should not be about single issues, but rather is our current executive doing what is in the best interests of the citizens of the USA. I am far from being a Romney fan, I lean more libertarian, but the current administration has not been good for our country’s future and even with some of Romney’s past statements on guns, I will vote for him as I truly believe it will be for the greater good.
Obama is about as much of a democrat as Arnold Schwarzenegger is a republican.
He hasn’t hurt 2A rights, if anything, he’s given them tacit support – as much as anyone who runs as a democrat can.
Do you have any idea of what Fast & Furious was about? Are you really so ignorant of Obama’s voting record in the state and federal governments? Do you actually believe what you read at Huffington Post?
I wish you ignorant jerks would simply not vote. At least that way, intelligent and informed citizens can make a decision that won’t strip us of rights.
I’ve seen other people bring this up before, and I’ll tell you what I told them.
The right to bear arms is a Constitutionally protected right. The “right” to get married is not and is merely a piece of paper issued by a bureaucracy.
If you think a useless piece of paper that only affects your Federal income tax and semantics is more important than the 2nd Amendment, then I think you need to rethink your priorities.
yeah so he better vote for the guy who is ok with gayness because if he doesn’t he has nothing to fall back on.
I’m still waiting for someone to explain to me, if two people of the same gender want to enter into the same agreement as I and my wife, why I should care. Maybe I’m missing something and I should care. I just can’t think of a reason and I haven’t heard one.
Matt, I support gay marriage, but I always thought that gay people had an advantage because they couldn’t get get married. If you can’t get married, you can’t get divorced. Sure, I know that nobody expects to get divorced, but most do. Why would you give up your immunity?
I also support gays in the military, because I think that gay people should have the same opportunity to get blown up as their straight brothers and sisters. In the unlikely event that conscription was re-instituted, I don’t think that a lot of gay people would be celebrating their emancipation.
Be careful what you wish for. You might think it’s validation, but it’s just the opposite. It’s exploitation.
I support government not being in the marriage business in the first place. I support couple or threesomes etc to have a civil union to solidify a marriage-type of business partnership relationship with pre-written contracts. If people want a marriage they can afterwards go to some religious organization to do the spiritual union.
Aharon, marriage is not a spiritual union, it’s an economic union that’s regulated by the state. Just like a corporation.
BTW, if two wage-earners marry, typically they pay higher Federal income taxes than they would if they were single.
If you think marriage is a spiritual union and nothing more, nothing prevents gays from getting married right now. Just go to any of the thousands of churches around the country who will marry you before God–it’s not illegal or anything. Just don’t expect government benefits.
If you believe marriage is an economic union, then all you need is a contract outlining the conditions: no need for government, other than to neutrally enforce your contract.
Government has no business in it at all. When Obama says, “Gays ought to be able to get married,” what he’s saying is “gays ought to allow government a role in their relationship.” It’s a mistake for straight couples, it’s a mistake for gay couples.
‘Be careful what you wish for. You might think it’s validation, but it’s just the opposite. It’s exploitation.’
More wisdom. Government does not grant more rights or validate existing ones. It sends Trojan Horses into our lives.
Ralph, I personally believe that marriage, done for the right reasons, is a spiritual union between a man and woman who love each other. Marriage for the wrong reasons can be anything you want to make of it. That being said, do I hate homosexuals? No. Do I support their choices in life? No. I believe gay marriage is not a spiritual union, but merely a political one. I will probably get crapped on for this, but I don’t care. Those are my beliefs.
Im not a single issue voter. He will not have my vote. All he has done for your private life is let gay’s be in the military and said he supports gay marriage. He can’t really do anything about that since that’s a state issue and protected under the 10th amendment. So it doesn’t do much good unless he makes federal issue marriage licenses. The fast and furious scandal is similar to watergate, and the current administration definitely does not have “the buck stops” here attitude I admire. They try to get out of responsibilities like a child does and they have no respect for the checks and balances system. Then I get to gun issues.. and I have a good but of gay friends some of the funniest people I know but it doesnt sit well with me that he will get the vote from that population because of what he says and in-spite of his actions.
If you don’t think his Supreme court appointments weren’t a “commitment to gun grabbers” you’re a fool. Good grief I’m getting tired of pointing this out to ignorant sheeple like you.
Gee Matt, what took your candidate so long to ‘evolve’?? And why did he wait until AFTER he kicked of his re-election? You call that a comittment?
His committment to gun grabbers came in the form of Kagan & Sotomayer as well as Fast & Furious.
I guess I am. The 2nd Amendment serves as a litmus test as to how comfortable a politician is with keeping liberty in the hands of the people. Through that, I can make an educated guess on how they perceive my other individual rights.
Life is a little more complicated than that though. Read up on your politicians, see what they really do after all of the previous times they were elected. Vote for whichever one has done the least harm and the most good.
I don’t reelect politicians. They should be changed as often as possible, so many of them do not have a voting record. Of those that do, I do read up on them, but the 2nd Amendment is the final word. Having citizens that are armed is perceived by many politicians to be the most dangerous freedom. If a politician is fine with me keeping this right unmolested, they will be fine with me exercising my other rights as well.
Given that the only thing Obama has done that pertains to guns is expand the right of people to carry, I see no reason to be concerned.
There are problems we face that are waaay more important to me than the “Obama’s gonna git yer guns!” boogeyman a certain group with an axe to grind and coffers to fill likes to trot out every time someone with a D after their name runs for office, so even if I were a single issue voter, my issue wouldn’t be gun rights.
No. I have my big issues, such as 2A and 4A rights, foreign relations, taxes, private sector growth, energy, and corruption, but I do push a lot of things to the side. I prioritize certain issues. Certain social issues do not affect me, and even if I marginally disagree on principal, I push it to the side.
Fore example, if someone is pro-gun, but at the same time wants higher public taxes and wants to place a moratorium on nuclear plant construction, I wouldn’t vote for that person.
I don’t vote it’s like going to a friends house who can’t cook you have shitty lasagna on the left and terrible steak to choose from
+1
The right to vote is merely the right to believe that you’re free. Voting is nothing but an illusion of freedom. Until each and every citizen can personally vote on the specific law that will affect them, then voting accomplishes nothing but chaos. Voting for a person makes as much sense as selling your car for gas money. People are corruptible, especially politicians. The only acceptable use of a voting system is this: Politicians should only have the power to submit a law for consideration for a vote. Then, We The People should vote on them. We’re the one’s who have to live by it. What you call voting now is laughable.
Voting is for slaves. Free men decide for themselves how they want to live. They don’t ask permission.
The easiest way to vote is with your voice. When that fails, you vote with your weapon. When that fails, you vote with your life.
Agree with much of what you wrote.
Those last two pargraphs may just have triggered a ‘road to Damascus’ moment for me.
I’m going to write in Ron Paul just to flip the finger to the establishment, and then likely never vote again.
There are so many issues.
Guess I might as well spill the beans. I was born and raised democrat. Yes even me.
It started about a year ago, I woke up one morning and started to look at was going on around me. The economy, people struggling. Taxes and government spending out of control. Entitlement programs as well intentioned as they may be can not be sustained under a free market, capitalistic government. I am pro choice, pro gay marriage. I don’t smoke pot but don’t believe it should be illegal.
I am what you would call a Reagan Democrat. But no longer, I changed over the GOP this year, although with much trepidation.
My second amendment rights and the restoration there of are very important to me. I had to look at each candidate carefully. Here is why, barring some catastrophe, Mitt Romney will have my support.
List of wedge issues I take into consideration:
1. The economy: Mitt Romney was part of a capital investment firm. I am really hoping to hear more about the successes and specifically what his firm focused on. It sounds like they were into large industry, which is good, we need more of this.
I don’t feel the US government has any business in being an investment firm, Solyndra is an example. I pass by that building every day. Those are our tax dollars sitting unused and abandoned. I believe in incentives to be green or organic growth but handing out loans is a waist as I don’t believe they should be risking our monies. That is the job of investment firms.
There are other focus points like government budgets, and how they are spent. but I could write a lot on the subject.
2. Jobs: While there has been a stale mate over growth under the current administration depending on how you present numbers, Mitt said something that makes a lot of sense. You need to instill policies which promote business growth and make it truly a free market. By doing so you will increase jobs and prosperity. He said like “instil our policies”. He also, when asked, stated what he would like to see the unemployment rate at, and followed up by saying it has a lot to do with world markets. He couldn’t be more right, as what happens in Europe, Asia, and the Middle East does affect us, so he gets it. Depending on the recovery of Europe and elsewhere will affect our businesses and growth here as well.
3. Gay Marriage: Mitt stated his own feelings which are different then mine, however, he then placed it squarely within the states sovereignty under the tenth amendment by saying it is a state issue. Doing so makes it a non issue with this candidate. If all 50 states voted for gay marriage then he wouldn’t blow a gasket.
Obama stated that he is for gay marriage but never stated what he would or would not do about it.
4. My second amendment rights: Yes Mitt spoke before the NRA, but his speech was tepid to say the least. Many don’t want federal involvement and folks like me who have been suppressed by our states do. Neither candidate has explained how or what they would do about it, so this is a big question mark that remains to be answered.
5. International Policy: Those of you who know me, know I have children living in Israel. While Mitt’s foreign policies lack depth, Obama has not impressed me at the least. His stance despite words has been less then enthusiastic about Israel. His attempt to negotiate with Iran, the Taliban, Russia, and Syria have left me scratching my head. I guess serving in the IDF maybe doesn’t give me a level headed view of the world but I do know that trying to negotiate with people who are hell bent on destroying you usually doesn’t work. It benefits them as they have more time to build a bomb, or continue their crack down on their own in a bloody civil war.
Ok off my soap box..
Hey the Republicans lied about the cookies when I came over to the dark side! oh well to late now…
“You need to instill policies which promote business growth and make it truly a free market.”
I really don’t mean to be rude here, but are you aware of what a free market is? Free from coercion in every way – willing parties entering into contracts with each other. ANY government policy on the economy means it is not a free market. ALL government policies on the economy lead to malinvestment and a waste of capital. Romney has the exact same views on this as Obama, and 95% of the rest of them – the view that people need them to run their lives for them.
It’s a pretty crucial issue for me.
As for the upcoming election, my sentiment echoes that of the Alien vs. Predator movies: “Whoever wins, we lose.”
That’s how I felt last time.
And you were right.
Are we talking Local? State? or Federal election?
At the local level, 2a plays no part and there are other things like schools, jobs and taxes that are important.
At the state level, it gets more complicated. I go to 2a rallies and am part of groups who beat back bills at the state level that keep trying to take guns away even though our state constitution says what the US constitution says about guns. Our state does not need any more Democrates running the state. We don’t need an attorney general who is a gun grabber and we have long list of useless gun grabber state senators and representatives. Govenor’s are very YMMV and CT as a state has picked the person based purely on issues which means in many times a Republican Gov. and Democratic state legislature and vise versa
At the Federal Level, I want a president who will create jobs and move the country forward. There are bigger issues at the national level and if we have the right US Senate/House I could care less if the President is gun grabber because that can be stopped. I want to actually retire some day and properity solves a lot of ills that govt. has not clue how to solve because there is money to fix issues. I will not vote for a gun grabber state representative to US House or US Senate. Senator Dobb was an a-hole and Blumenthal is no better and is narcisitic to the point that the most dangerous place is between him and a camera.
The worst thing you can do is not vote. Even if both candidates suck. Note voting means you don’t care and these guys will do whatever they want because there is nobody to oppose them. If everyone actually votes, it forces these guys to actually do their job because they know when their term comes, they will be out of job. It is pathetic that is some areas voter turn out is less than 30%
I agree 100%. Vote! And don’t be afraid of putting up some one else in the next primary if your last guy didn’t perform. If we can’t get term limits, let’s enforce them through our vote. But most of all, always VOTE!!!
The local level is VERY important for 2A rights here in CA. Each Sheriff has the ability to decide what is “good cause” to obtain a CCW.
If everyone actually votes, it forces these guys to actually do their job because they know when their term comes, they will be out of job.
That’s a laugh considering they’re the ones who get to decide who’s even up for election.
The only voter turnout number that really matters is 3%. All the rest of it is just dressing.
If I voted, my single issue would be Liberty. That’s why I like Ron Paul.
I became a single-issue voter when I realized that politics is a team sport and pro Second Ammendment candidates tend to support the whole Christian conservative agenda which I do.
What does Christian have to do with the Constitution and liberty? Seems that the more Christian a politician is, the more they want to restrict liberty to only things approved of in the Bible and personal rights and the Constitution be damned.
Christians typically value the individual over the state. REAL ones understand your behavioral choices are between you and God and interfere only when your behavior negatively impacts others. Iran is a non-Christian state and I have no desire to live there or like them.
I should explain that my definition of a “real” Christian is one who follows the teachings of Yeshua bar Yaweh as opposed to the rules of a particular denomination. Yeshua was famous for compassion toward hypocrites and sinners and critical only of the religious leaders who took it upon themselves to tell everyone else what to do.
I have no desire to live in a Christian state.
Iran is a Theocratic-based dictatorship and life would be just as bad under a Christian theocracy. I was raised Christian, so I’m very much aware that they’re about doing their best to force people to behave a certain way. The greatest crime a Christian can commit is to ask the simple question “Why?” or to ask for an explanation of logical inconsistencies in the Bible.
Other than the random explosions, Muslims and Christians aren’t very different. I have no desire to have either forcing their views on me.
“Single Issue Voters”
That is a VERY VERY VERY scary concept.
“We got our gun honey! Yee Haw!”
*Watches the rest of the country starve to death, become ill, and fed drugs that the FDA should have never allowed in the first place, all while being taxed to death and fighting unjust wars across the globe under the guise of “fighting terrorism”
* mean while in Los Angeles*
You have a better chance of dying in a car accident every time you drive than you do of being hurt in a terrorist attack.
“Single issue”? More like “narrow minded”
I struggle with this constantly.. I like the policies of some politicians but have to make a decision when I find out they are ANTI-GUN.
I support universal healthcare because it would save us money in the long run and help eleviate some of the social divides. As a requirement, not so much, but the option to opt out would/could provide other options. I’m not going to get into it.
I support legalization of marijuana and abortions, the government has little to no right to tell you what you can do with your body. If they did we would not be a free state/nation…Go figure right?
I believe that this nation was partially founded on the principle that religious persecution was unjust, so stop persecuting others with your religion.
I believe in gay rights, and marriage. I grew up with gay family members who have been nothing shy of amazing people.
I dont support xenophobia and hope for a streamlined immigration process. I’m not worried about someone who doesn’t speak the language and wandered through the desert with no shoes for 2 weeks stealing my job. If they could steal your job, you’re a looser of epic proportions. Hat tip Stanhope.
I’m 100000% pro firearms.
I believe regulations are goo when they are not naught and paid for and designed to better the nation as a whole. Not just blanket regulations, regulation that would make this country a better place to live. It’s not cool to go dumping toxic waste in drinking water. That’s one example. There are millions more that I’m sure have never applied to the majority of us yet we feel the need to say “hell no with that!” *eye roll* Enjoy your three-headed-potato-baby.
I’m not a fan of Pelosi, Boxer, Moonbeam, or Bacca. Yee, De Leon and Lowenthal can go to hell.
I’m not 100% satisfied with Obama, but I’m not going to hate on every policy and every attempt at fixing the huge mess REPUBLICANS stuck us with, because Barack Obama is black, has a “not so American sounding name” or because he’s a democrat. Democrats have a tendency to want to spread the wealth, and republicans have a tendency to want to keep it all to them selves. A little “us against them” for ya? Vote republican and you’ll see how the top 1% benefits off the exploitation of the middle class citizen. I’m willing to bet regardless of how any of us actually vote, the majority of us fit RIGHT IN THE MIDDLE of the Middle Class citizen category. Some a little higher, some a little lower.
Oh but I enjoy firearms and believe them to be crucial to a free state… Good luck voting J – In this corner you have “Share the wealth take the guns” in that corner you have “Keep your guns, I’ll take all your money!”
It’s all a giant puppet show.
Just because you have the “right to vote” in some bullshit election, doesn’t mean you should.
If you have to choose between what freedoms you’re willing to give up in order to gain others, then you are a slave. Either you vote for the “candidate” that supports 100% of your views or DON’T VOTE!!! Give up one freedom and you give up them all. Freedom is NOT optional. It is not a condition of someone else’s point of view. Make your own freedoms and fight to the death to keep ’em.
The candidate who supports 100% of my views doesn’t exist. Actually, the candidate I could tolerate voting for doesn’t exist, so I’m mainly going to be voting for local ballot measures and hoping whoever gets elected doesn’t succeed in effing up the country too much.
I support universal healthcare because it would save us money in the long run
You mean like all those other countries that are just as broke as the US, but also have 60% income tax rates and 20+% sales tax as well as a tax on everything else you can imagine? Yea, that’s really “saving money”. YOU might be better off with it, but most people wouldn’t.
I’m not worried about someone who doesn’t speak the language and wandered through the desert with no shoes for 2 weeks stealing my job.
It’s not about stealing jobs for most people (though the very poor people like you claim to want to help are the ones competing against illegals for jobs), it’s about not wanting to assimilate into the culture of the US. They want to try to force the US to become the same shithole that they ran away from. As for immigration laws? If you have a useful skill, they should be fairly relaxed. If you don’t have a useful skill (plumber, doctor, engineer, etc), then we don’t need you – we already have millions of uneducated, unskilled idiots that were born here. Importing more only makes things worse.
Vote republican and you’ll see how the top 1% benefits off the exploitation of the middle class citizen.
Right, which is why the majority of the extremely rich are Democrats who give nothing to charity and demand higher taxes on everyone who’s not them (most of them also didn’t every do anything particularly USEFUL either – they’re actors and rappers, not the people who invented things and created jobs). If the “Evil Republicans” were the ones wanting to screw over the middle class, then how come it’s all of Obama’s new taxes that are hammering the middle class?
And for the record, I think both the Republican and Democrat parties have about 2% of their ideas that are useful and the other 98% from both parties are about screwing over the citizens of the US for the personal gain / pleasure of the politicians.
Big +1.
+1 – Thanks for the feedback. Something good to let marinate
Speaking from the UK, universal healthcare does not save you money, it saves government money. And before you say anything, if you don’t realise those are two different things, you’ve already lost.
LOL, you mean it GENERATES them revenue. Something about a contract in hand equals credit and monetary leverage in borrowing I see in big business all the time.
You’re right about it being a puppet show and the curtain keeps us from seeing whose hand is really up the puppets ass. I wonder though, why would you vote for someone who thinks YOU are too dangerous and unstable to won any sort of gun that strikes your fancy? I won’t vote for someone who doesn’t trust me as much as he expects me to trust him.
won should read “own”. Less haste, more speed.
I am a single issue voter.
The only issue I care about is freedom.
+1,000,000
So you don’t have any candidate to vote for either? I’m with you, man.
I like public education. I want universal healthcare. I like labor unions. I’m pro-choice. I want the National Firearms Act repealed.
Who the hell should I vote for. I’ll be confused in every election unless I move to Montana so I can vote for Jon Tester.
Has it occured to you that you don’t have to vote? If you’re not absolutely, positively, 100% sure of who you want “controlling” your country, then DON’T VOTE! If you want some freedoms but not others, just flip a coin. You might as well gamble away your freedom.
I can’t stand public education, because the teacher is forced to go at the speed of the slowest student making the class bad for the talented students.
If they can force everyone to buy health insurance they can force everyone to buy 5 new computers a year. The Canadians already have universal healthcare & it has killed many of them, some have even had the wrong limb amputated.
Labor Unions need to be removed. In Europe which was heavily unionized, the unions prevented the shipyards from using forklifts & other equipment because they would have fewer members, making less money while the forklift allowed the employer to pay higher wages. The union where I work has forced the company to sell of parts of the company just to stay in the black. They also make it hard for them to make it hard for them to make changes they need to. Also if a contract is coming up they may put some departments on a hiring freeze until after the negotiations are finished, Which causes extra work for the people who are still working there.
Pro-choice is a misnomer. It is mor along the lines of being pro murder of babies & making it harder for people who want to adopt a baby.
Wow I finally can agree with you on one. Most Firearms laws need to be stricken. Aside from constitutional carry, Castle Doctrine, Stand Your Ground, & people who are not responsible should lose their right to carry a gun.
One other change we need the CCW to be accepted in every state just like drivers licenses, not just for States that issue CCWs as a way to encourage the other state to issue, & if an 18-year-old is old enough to die for the country they are old enough to buy any gun. Also we need to be able to open carry anywhere in the USA except for prisons & mental institutions.
“Are You a Single Issue Voter?”
No, just a non-voter.
Were I a single-issue voter, it would be for wisdom. It sounds glib, but when you elect a man or woman to command that much power, wisdom, restraint, courage, humility and all those corny tropes trump position papers. Martin Luther once said “I would rather be ruled by a wise Turk than by a foolish Christian.”
I think about how our country was founded by really smart talented guys like Tom Jefferson, John Adams, Ben Franklin, and I wounder where the people like that are today! I’ve “held my nose” while voting for federal candidates the past 20 years as I tried to select the lesser of 2 evils. My single issue is also freedom, and who looks like they support freedom for the citizenry and who looks like they want to control my life from the womb to the tomb. Looking at the people that Pres. Obama has appointed to the Supreme court and to the cabinet, I can not support him in any way. In my corner of PA on our last election, we voted out a long time republican congressman who had just gotten too damned comfortable in Washington, DC. He was QUITE surprised to join the private sector, as was the Republican party that supported him. His challenger in the R. primary eventually won the seat in congress. Hopefully it will take a few years before he forgets how he got elected.
Last time around i was too young by a week to vote in the national election. This is going to be my first and last time voting most likely. I’m voting for Doctor Paul. War has always always been the major issue for me. That’s why in my eyes hes the only choice. Obama and mitt are both terrible on that front. Although Mitt is worse. He also supports NDAA. Can’t fight a tyrannical government with 2a if your locked up in gitmo.
It wouldn’t be accurate to say I’m a single issue voter, but there are a relative few that are most important to me, the Second Amendment being at the top of the list. And if the choice is between the lesser of two evils, I’ll take less evil. Please and thank you.
As for the thinking that there would have been no difference between GWB and Al Gore or John Kerry, just imagine if there were two more Stephen Breyers instead of an Alito and a Roberts on SCOTUS. Heller and MacDonald would have almost certainly turned out the reverse of what they did. If you’re inclined not to vote your freedoms, remember that your enemies hope you won’t.
No! I care about a great many issues, but the most important of these is the freedom to peacefully mind my own affairs. It is an indictment of humankind that the exercise of this modest aspiration requires access to, and expertise with weapons. This irony has persisted throughout history, and, in practice, makes me a single issue voter.
“This is the most dangerous election of our lifetimes”
— They keep using that line over and over.
No, I’m not a single issue voter. I think this election is a dance between two incompetent metro-sexual elitists who cannot relate to and don’t care about the common person.
“Single issue voting” is quite possibly the stupidest thing I’ve ever heard of.
If I can find which issue you prize over all others – abortion, pro or anti, gun rights, pro or anti, social services, pro or anti – I, as a politician, can trumpet your one issue as my banner and screw you over on every other political front in existence.
In all truth, that’s what many politicians do. They take advantage of stupid voters. Don’t be a stupid voter. Be an educated voter. Weigh the sum of the various things the politician will *actually* do (not what they say they will do), look at their past voting record. If they’ve been a politician long enough, you’ll know them by what they have done overall.
I prize gun rights. I also prize health care that isn’t tied to a single employer, or a 9-5 job. I prize sensible foreign policy and an end to wars that do not make me free. I prize the healthy state of the environment around me without being an idiot about it (If it’s owls or homes for people, shoot the owls. If it’s a thousand acres of pristine 500+ yr old forest? Build somewhere else).
I know no politician is going to view things exactly as I do. So I vote for the one I think will come closest, republican or democrat.
To quote L. Neil Smith: People accuse me of being a single-issue writer, a single- issue thinker, and a single- issue voter, but it isn’t true. What I’ve chosen, in a world where there’s never enough time and energy, is to focus on the one political issue which most clearly and unmistakably demonstrates what any politician — or political philosophy — is made of, right down to the creamy liquid center.
Make no mistake: all politicians — even those ostensibly on the side of guns and gun ownership — hate the issue and anyone, like me, who insists on bringing it up. They hate it because it’s an X-ray machine. It’s a Vulcan mind-meld. It’s the ultimate test to which any politician — or political philosophy — can be put.
If a politician isn’t perfectly comfortable with the idea of his average constituent, any man, woman, or responsible child, walking into a hardware store and paying cash — for any rifle, shotgun, handgun, machinegun, anything — without producing ID or signing one scrap of paper, he isn’t your friend no matter what he tells you.
If he isn’t genuinely enthusiastic about his average constituent stuffing that weapon into a purse or pocket or tucking it under a coat and walking home without asking anybody’s permission, he’s a four-flusher, no matter what he claims.
There’s more, but that’s the crux of it.
I have recently moved into a predominately gay neighborhood. I fully support their right to be married like the rest of us. A couple of us have had a discussion of why they vote how they do. I completely understand where they are coming from, but if you can’t find a job or make decent money, then what good is a piece of paper? I get it is the principle, I get it.
The fact is, we need to have economic stability, otherwise the paper acknowledging someone’s marriage, gay or otherwise, will be moot. It’s even to the point that I’ll vote against a pro gun person for better economic policy. Some things have to take a back burner. This time, it needs to be economic growth that takes the cake.
I have to ask, but how do you know it’s predominantly a gay neighborhood? Signs posted? The way houses are? Businesses catering to gay lifestyle?
Sorry, bad use of neighborhood. By neighborhood, I meant my condo complex. I was tired when I posted that last night. Anyway, most are extremely comfortable and extremely open about their preference. More than half, probably well more than two thirds, of my neighborhood is gay. It’s just how it is.
Everybody ready for my views?
Here we go!
Drugs, taken for any other reasons than medicinal, are a weakness on the part of the user. It is one more thing to control your life. I would rather spend my money on ammo, than blow on a glass pipe.
Abortion, for reasons other than rape, is murder, and people who partake in it should be treated as mutterers.
The second amendment is the amendment that protects all the others. It is arguably the most important amendment.
When it comes to Christianity, haters gonna hate. As a Roman Catholic, I feel pity for those who have rejected God.
My stance on gay marriage can be viewed in response to Ralph’s comment.
And lastly, George Zimmerman was defending himself.
Peace.
These comments are really refreshing. What I see here is mostly not ‘single issue’ voters, but thoughtful ‘issue-by-issue’ voters; and that’s the sign of thinking citizens in a rational democracy. Looking at the two major parties can led one to despair in finding such citizens; but democracy requires them, and I’m glad to see they’re alive and well.
I am a single issue voter, because I see this issue as an indication of the candidate’s stand on so many other issues related to my freedom.
Texas State Representative, Dr. Suzanna Hupp said it best:
“How a politician stands on the Second Amendment tells you how he or she views you as an individual; as a trustworthy and productive citizen, or as part of an unruly crowd that needs to be lorded over, controlled, supervised, and taken care of.”
I’m not a single issue voter. I look at the overall direction of any individual’s history and make a decision. I rarely vote for anyone less than grudgingly. Romney bugs me quite a bit, but every politician does. It’s the nature of their work. But you couldn’t get me to vote for Obama. I don’t need support for my personal life from the President of the United States. Then again, I’m not a social minority. But I do expect respect for my rights, and on that score Obama fails across the board. Romney doesn’t pass on every issue, obviously, but in this particular election there’s no question for me. Obama tilts so far against individual freedom that there’s hardly any Republican so much worse in the other direction that I’d have any doubts.
Those for whom I would vote on the gun issue are usually OK on the other things I care about
Yes I am. They are all as bad as the other, so why not? That’s why I vote UKIP on the Europe question.
Mr Obama and his merry band of looters have given me more than a few reasons to choose others. It’s not possible for me to be a single issue voter this year.
For me, I look to the somewhat larger picture. Issues like abortion, gay marriage, and other things generally follow the will of the people. As time has gone on, both have become more acceptable and court decisions and political action have followed this path. On the other hand, I look at directions a president is going that may not be what the people want. The forced socialized medicine program that Obama advanced is one such example. The election of Scott Brown as the first Republican Senator in who knows how long and the 2010 election of so many Republicans to Congress were indications that Obama’s agenda in that case was not popular with a large segment ofthe people.
His attitude towards 2A is another such example. Sure, he has not done much so far against 2A but that was because for his first half of the term, he was focused on healthcare and after the 2010 election, he has been focused on not getting bounced out of office. Along the way however, he has nominated a number of justices including in the Supreme Court who are no friends of 2A. His comment to the Russian President in April about having “more flexibility” along with both his comments to anti 2A groups about working under the radar and his administration of the ATFE during his term show him to be what he is.
Anyone who is a gun owner cannot in good conscience vote for Obama because the massive damage that he can do with even one more Supreme Court nomination would change forever how this country views the 2A and would begin the long slide to prohibition. All of the other Social issues that would normally suggest a vote for him pale in comparison in the grand scheme of things and will be gained regardless of whether Obama has a second term or not.
I am a single issue voter, because I’m voting on the only issue that does matter. The 2nd amendment is the only protected right that affords the ability to take back other rights, if it comes to that.
It’s easy to get completely disgusted with politics, elections and government in general when there hasn’t been a really legitimate government is years. We have Obama because 70% of the eligible voters didn’t want him enough to vote for him while 80% didn’t want McCain enough to vote for him. The winner wasn’t chosen by the majority rather by the larger minority. The ballots need to have a box marked “None of the above” and if NOTA wins the election needs to be done over with completely different names.
Please people! The way a politician views the 2A tells almost everything about that politician. He may hold varying views on other issues, but the 2A and the 1A are THE most important guideposts of basic freedoms. That’s why they are ONE AND TWO.
Don’t ever vote for anybody who has even a hint of doubt as to the rights and freedoms these two amendments state (not GRANT but STATE). Those of you who say they will vote for Obama are forgetting one essential aspect of this whole affair: Obama will be a “lame duck” if re elected, meaning he won’t give a damn what he does to us because he will suffer no consequences. And he will be in a position to pick his successor who can continue his agenda, meaning we are SCREWED FOREVER AFTER. I don’t want to have to live my remaining few years under that environment, so either vote for Romney with the attendant risks or DON’T VOTE AT ALL.
Am I a single issue voter? In the November election, pretty much. The only issue I care about is getting Obama out of the White House.
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