At a stage in my life I despised activists. I thought to myself, Do you have nothing better to do than stand out there in the rain with you stupid ass signs and scream and shout.
I still feel it is extreme, hence extremist I guess.

To dabble more deeply into what is involved, I think we have to turn aside a little and digress back to how the process came to be.
Like most adamant stances, people will at times do almost anything to get what they want. Moreover when you are involved in a group. PETA - NRA - MAD This feeds the machine.
Our own psychological reasoning is a good place to find some answers. Belief, hidden agendas, greed, popularity, belonging ,etc.
Having been a life long member of the NRA, I am adamant about the right to bare arms. I also realise that they take extreme stances on all anti gun issues.
Most any of these organizations mean well. Mean well to what they want our believe. But a good phrase to some up these hard core stances that are common place with these groups is--- If you give an inch, they will take a foot. This is sad but true.
I will critique the NRA to try and be in all fairness rather than a group I disagree with.

A measure is passed for background checks. This sounds like a no brainer. If you are not breaking the law, what is the issue. The issue is the government sees $$$$$ behind everything. This (In Ohio) did nothing to reduce gun related crime. The criminal would obviously not get a firearm via going through a background check. So the law abiding gun owner pays the tab.
A measure to reduce high capacity magazines. If looked at, our nation's crimes are not committed buy mas shootings. So the anti gun person will point to the minority situation such as columbine or Wako, in Texas.

These measures are fought against because of the understanding that extremists will try to gain a foothold anyway they can. As a result a hard line stance is established . A stance to extreme, but necessary because of the tactics of the opposition.

The patriot act is another good example. It seems all in all a good measure. But once broken down into segments, it breaks down the rights of the people when it proclaims to be protecting them. A rather clever vail. Small measures that can get the foot in the door to begin to dismantle the established and begin to unfold the hidden agendas that were all along in place.

So negotiting is almost impossible. Even when a fair measure seems evident.

Thoughts?