It's the War, Stupid.

I'm a lurker of many a site. Mostly they're sites that retain my interest for less than the long run. Sensible Erection (NSFW) has been one of the longstandingest. Politics, celebrity, porn, technology, the world. Like most of the internet, it's mostly boys looking at boyish things. Many of the links come from (or, alternatively, end up on) SA and Metafilter and BoingBoing. A good catchall for staying culturally relevant. The discussions are often more enlightening and entertaining than the original posting.
Politics has gained a bigger slice than normal, what with November approaching and the sister site Sensible Election taking a pause.
Gun control. In general, I'm for it. Your personal rights end when the potential for a loaded barrel swings my way. My father had an unnecessary loaded gun pointed his and the results, though not immediately disastrous were eventually disappointingly life altering.
However, I don't find it a make-or-break issue. One million dead Iraqis. That's make or break. With guns, I'm negotiable. Here's a comment on SE from Scaryface in response to a response to Bill O'Rly on BO:

Thats a part of it, of course, but its simplifying the issue. Guns are a deeply ingrained part of American culture, whether we like it or not. I had to explain this to a German employer of mine not to long ago. People sometimes forget about America's long love affair with the personal firearm and tend to make it out to be more black and white than it is. We won a revolution using personally owned firearms, we've wiped out a native culture and the ran off multiple other country's stakes on the continent, we've even killed mass amounts of each other in a crazy war of succession.

Yes, guns kill people. That much is black and white. It seems like an easy decision, but it's one we've only recently been able to make. The ownership of a firearm was essential to most American's survival not more than 200 years ago. Its a [vestigial] leftover that were now logically able to get rid of, but I doubt we'd have had that option without the benefit of guns in [stabilizing] the country. I'm not particularly endorsing their ownership, but having one is a bigger part of American history than most want to admit. It isn't all cash flow and lobbyists.

I personally am not a fan of firearms and don't own one, but I get why many people want to keep them. If I considered hunting with my Father to be a valuable bit of male bonding, I'd want to keep my rifle too.