Some social conservatives want to make gun rights their sole province. NO one else need apply or support the cause. Typical group polarization.
I think Glenn hit the issue on the head.
I see it here online, at the gun range, in my orderly room, everywhere. People assume all sorts of things about liberals, from being degenerate heathens to being America-hating reds and everything in between. Rather than people who may be of a different political persuasion about other issues.
If you see it from many people's perspective the only time they see guns and gun owners is either film/TV, the news where some wack-job shoots up somewhere with an "assault rifle", or some select soundbite on the news from some idiot in a trailer-park about needing the 2A to take on on the Tri-Lateral commission, UN and the Micky Mouse-Fan club when they take over the world (think the Wing Commander on Dr. Strangelove and his "bodily fluids"-type).
Trust me, many people think the average gun owner is a Rush Limbaugh loving, evolution-hating fundamentalist whose just waiting to blow someone away when the black-helicopters land in their front yard. Rhetoric such as “From my cold dead hands” just reinforces the stereotype that much more, rather than the idea of rational people who just enjoy a safe, fun sport.
So next time someone says something about guns being bad, rather than getting mad or trying to debate them about the 2A, CCWs, assualt rifles, black helicopters, armagedon, etc, etc; politely offer to take them shooting.
If they keep making excuses you know their more interested in being "right" rather than "correct" and you can stop wasting your time. On the other hand if they accept and you show them a good time then you have done something for out sport.
My 22/45 Ruger won many, many, many converts during my under-grad time at Texas’ bastion of Liberalism: UT-Austin by just letting people shoot it and not challanging their stereotypes directly.