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Aside from bumping this (I'm seeing people asking about dating sites in other threads), I wanted to mention that I recently lost my first potential date ever due to politics.

I was IMing with someone and hitting it off pretty well, we even knew a few of the same people on my little island, when she started asking me about politics. I tried to keep it light and only mention the fairly conventional aspects of my beliefs, criminal justice reform, a better voting system, social safety net stuff, etc, when she just point blank asked me about guns, which just happen to be my special interest and sometimes profession. Being honest, I said that I'd actually gone to school as a gunsmith, had worked in the industry, and wasn't particularly fond of gun control generally, which is all usually third date material for me since I don't like people making snap judgments about me, and I was proven right in this case as I immediately got hit with a flurry of anti-gun links and invective, and got dropped like a rock.

Now I've dated women who didn't like guns before, but in every case they've liked me enough to overlook the issue, and if they've spent any length of time with me they've become comfortable around them, if not enthusiastic for them (though it's surprising how many women will come around if taken to the range). I've actually seen a handful of honest to god "come to Jesus" moments when I've been out with a woman and *something* has happened around us that frightened her, and then she's realized that I'm carrying, and further realized that she's comforted by that. BUT, that requires getting past someones "filters" in the first place, which means not putting out everything about me right up front.

Learn from my mistake; don't talk politics with potential dates, only woe lies down that path!

but like you said, that was about politics, not guns.

guns in themselves could be a fun toy, but a person could still be of an opinion that firearms are a bad thing in the general scheme of things and not want to hang out with someone who is into them. It's the essential values mismatch, you can't fix that with personality or good looks.

The irony of many who call themself liberals is that when it comes to accepting other opinions or being open minded they are not a liberal person.
What that person did was rather ignorant, and unnecessary. All they had to do was not respond. Then again, I personally would have told them they can find out more about me in person as your profile is long enough

oh dear lord. *pinches nose bridge*

Yes, of course, there is no better way to build a rewarding and mutually supportive relationship than lying to eachother from the start.

As for the gun thing, I blame the Chinese. People think it's always the Germans who are to blame, but no, it really is the Chinese. Ruddy gun powder inventing communists, the lot of them.