Both political parties have let America down all too often. The Republicans have been guilty twice in recent years of apparently running McCain & Dole for instance...apparently upon some kind of "seniority" basis.
While I surely don't believe McCain was a great choice for prez, we can only compare him fairly in reference to the prez we got, apparently because many were bamboozled by the slickster from Chicago ! Since our only choice was between two candidates and we hear accusations of how bad McCain would have been for gun owners, perthaps we should look at Mccain's real record;
http://www.ontheissues.org/2008/John_McCain_Gun_Control.htm Two possible complaints;
1) He wouldn't mind banning cheap handguns ! While I don't agree with that, many even here would like to see cheap, saturday night special type handguns banned....
2) He did say he would "look at" an assault weapons ban. Here he was guilty of political "double-speak", assault weapons, capable of fully automatic operation ARE ALREADY BANNED, except for the special permit holders.
When you read the statements he made, compared to the dude we now have..he's a great friend of gun owners !