Reply #56: To some extent, that reflects the attitude of two of my friends who are a lesbian couple

[Euromutt]

They live in a rather redneck logging town, and they ride motorcycles on the weekend (apparently, some four-wheel drivers can display a nasty attitude towards motorcyclists), and as a result, both of them carry concealed handguns. Their respective handguns collections put mine to shame. Nevertheless, when it comes to primary/election time, they're going to emphasize gay rights over gun rights.

And to be honest, when it comes down to it, given the choice between a candidate who is pro-choice but anti-gun, and a candidate who is pro-gun but anti-choice, I'll vote for the pro-choicer any day of the week. I'll admit it, when McCain won the Republican nomination, I looked into his record, but when I saw his stance on abortion and gay rights, he lost me. When he selected Palin as his running mate, it was the equivalent of dumping a 50-ton slab of concrete on top of the corpse (if I tell you I do volunteer work in wolf conservation, that alone should explain why).

But if there's a candidate who's pro-choice and pro-gun, I'll write him or her in if I have to. Which is what I did in 2008; I wrote in Bill Richardson (though admittedly not before I'd made as certain as I could be that McCain was going to lose in this state).