Gun owners against Bush?

This is pretty amazing. Several months back I speculated about the possibility of the NRA endorsing a Dean candidacy but I figured that the best we could hope for would be the NRA declining to endorse anyone.

Now comes this LA Times story about how a lot of gun owners are pissed off at Bush but aren't quite ready to endorse Kerry:

Surprisingly, the issues that have most alienated many gun groups from the Bush administration have little to do with firearms, but rather with the Patriot Act and other homeland security measures instituted after Sept. 11. Opposition to such laws has aligned gun-rights activists with unlikely partners, such as liberal Democrats and the ACLU.

"It's not just gun rights for us, it's the Bill of Rights," said Angel Shamaya, executive director of KeepAndBearArms.com, which claims tens of thousands of supporters. "A lot of gun-rights advocates are from mildly upset to livid over President Bush and his administration."

The dilemma Bush faces is that although most gun-rights groups consider him far more friendly to their concerns than Kerry, he may have lost enough of their political support to keep them from becoming an energized and therefore influential voting bloc in a close election.

It's hard not to imagine what they would be thinking if Dean were the nominee.