never say never.

you don't honestly think that if there were a continuous stream of shootings that people wouldn't change their attitude towards guns?

Hell, there would probably be a period where even more people started getting guns out of fear (already happening) but as more shootings occur, it would be shown that more concealed carry holders don't necessarily stop shit like this happening. A CC holder will eventually accidentally shoot an innocent instead of the active shooter if it hasn't happened already and LaPierre's myth of "only thing that can stop an armed bad guy is an armed good guy" will be shattered.

yeah I think it's likely that a sustained stream of unnecessary death and carnage will slowly change people minds, but it's the standard meme of "it gets worse before it gets better" a lot of people are going to have to die to educate people that maybe only those with significant and continuous training should have weapons.

It will also be another cliche of how politicians typically never change their mind unless it happens to them. You put a chickenhawk politician in the trenches of war, suddenly he's not so supportive of war. Take a politician that has been anti-gay and give them a gay family. suddenly their opinion changes. Take a politician who is anti-abortion and force them to make a choice between the life of the baby and life of the mother and guess what, their opinions will probably change.

So never say things will never change.

Your video, Family Guy: "Like when the tin man found out he was gay.", has made it into the Top 15 New Videos listing. Congratulations on your achievement. For your contribution you have been awarded 1 Power Point.

It's almost utterly useless to try and argue with people like this because logic doesn't come into it. You can through everything at them...:
* the definition of 'marriage' as they say it is not some set in stone thing.
* How does a couple of gay people getting married affect them AT ALL?
* How can you try and suggest that male/female marriage is any sort of bedrock with the current levels of divorce

And as MaxWilder says, it's not the man/woman marriage that forms good, well rounded offspring, it's a stable, loving family of any description. As long as there are parents (or one) who give the children love, respect, support, guidance, an open ear, a stable, known home base to feel secure in... then you're going to end up with good kids. Raise them in a male/female family that either breaks up or daily demonstrates lack of respect or time or love and you're going to get shit kids.

Same can go with a gay family too... not trying to suggest that all gay families are instantly perfect, but it's not some defining thing: mother/father = good family.

I think there's a lot more to do with people, of any type of coupling, not taking marriage seriously enough, not actually thinking whether they really do want to spend the rest of their life with this person, and many times (seen it myself with friends), the belief that being marriage will change things for the better. Plus, back in the day there were probably just as many, if not more, bad marriages, but people stuck with them due to the shame of divorce... so instead of breaking up and being happier, you had a couple who hated each other staying together 'for appearances'... which leads to kids getting the wrong idea of how people should treat each other.