And you can't tell me that anti-gun liberals (not a lot of them on this board, interestingly) don't use the indignation of the NRA as a measuring stick of their policies.

And while lack of balance (on ALL parts of the spectrum) certainly does not mean a group is wrong, I have noticed a tendency for activism to become an end in itself, and the activists becoming hostile toward workable solutions that don't mesh with their agenda.

Back when cold fusion was still thought to be a possibility, the separation between real environmentalists (who were hoping to God it worked) and the leftist radical environmental faction (who saw the possible end of a major issue against Western technological civilization) became very obvious. You don't get a touchstone that good very often.