Guns have always been owned by a small disparate minority who are viewed by the vast majority as strange and probably a little deranged!
This is why it has been relatively easy for us to get stuck with ever tightening firearm legislation: the general population don't get it and we are too few and fragmented to have a strong lobby to defend ourselves.
Are you talking about Massachusetts? After MA passed its gun legislation in 1998, legal gun ownership dropped 80% and today roughly 10% of the voters are gun owners. And that is reflected in the mentality around here - I recently arranged for my son's Scout troop to shoot for their Riflery Merit Badges at my club, and some of the parents would not let their sons participate until I confirmed that this was not an NRA program (no shi!).
Sorry for the hijack but Toby's comment struck too close to home.
