It seems my best friend I had growing up, in fact the only friend I had growing up, has turned into a anti-gun liberal.  We were inseperable when we were kids. Camping, fishing, swimming, skiing, you name it.  Most of my best childhood memories involve him in some way.  We're both stubborn as hell, so politics always comes up and neither one will let it go.  I consider people like him an enemy of freedom.  I despise people like him.  Most of the time I think I'd be content to never hear from him again.  This ever happen to any of you?

Yep.  They were'nt so good a friend after all.  I'd returned from a gun show and asked if I could show them what I'd purchased.  OK.  As I was pulling out the pistol, they freaked out and said it couldn't be in the house.  I explained that I couldn't leave it in the vehicle I was driving as it did not have a safe enough storage compartment to prevent theft if it was not being  watched.  They said I'd have to leave!
I was really pissed off, but smiled and left.
The guy served in the Reserves and I could not understand his point of view here.  We eventually talked again at some point before Y2K and I asked him if he had a firearm to defend his household and family.  He said no, they would just comply with the intruders if need be. The next statement out of his mouth was that if he needed a gun, he'd know where to go, meaning my place...I told him to call first and knock real loud when he showed up, if I decided to even let him get that close.  
That was the last time I ever talked to this Bozo.  

Anyone lost a good friend to politics?
 HUH!
yea my wife, she is now a city commissioner,
although she's not one of those gun hating tree huggers, she does spend too much time trying to please people that just cant be pleased, no matter what you do.
she is pretty cool on the gun subject. its a good thing too or else I'd have no wife and more money to spend on guns. hey thats not a bad idea anyway.

I cannot lose what I did not have in the first place.

Unfortunately it is happening to me right now.  A buddy of mine went to school at Radford and every time he comes back he has some new line of BS.  Dubya is going to kill us all with arsenic.  He is stubborn and believes what he says but has nothing to back it up.  I have another friend who anti the sharpest tool in the shed and is a dem because of his parents.  Fortunately he does not like to talk politics because he has no return for my facts.  He enjoys going shooting with me and is not an anti, so we do get along.  Fortunately all my other long time friends have all grown together and go shooting together.  

Quite a few friends, and a couple girls. Big Deal.

Yeah..My best friend for 17 years..turned into a hardcore anti-gun liberal. One moment he would be spouting off about how many people gunowners kill and how many gunowners are angry people who are just time bombs waiting to go off. Then the next moment he is talking about how we (the government) is going to have to not only ban guns but actively round them up from peoples houses.
I would point out to him that since gunownership is very high they would have to suspend the 4th Amendment along with a lot of other constitutional rights..and he would say that they should do whatever is necessary to confiscate all guns.

And this is coming from a guy who thinks that he is a "civil libertarian" because he believes in "free speech" (that is...as long as you agree with his viewpoint).

He also has some kind of weird idea that all money from the government is free. I point out to him that if that was the case..then why do we have taxes. And he would say..because people make too much money and the government should take more money away from the rich and give it to the poor...etc.

The guy makes $140 per hour as a consultant..

For the life of my I can't figure him out anymore other than he needs to get on some medication or see a shrink cause I think he's nuts.

My mom sounds like your consultant friend.  She makes $90k a year and LOVES paying taxes, LOVES Al Gore, WORSHIPS Bill Clinton.  I just cannot cannot understand.

I was really tight with my friend's little brother when he was in high school.  Now he's 18, out of high school, and hopelessly idealistic. I was the same way. He thinks I am pure evil and have no soul.  Maybe once he starts to figure how the world really works he'll favor politics that won't stand in his way of acquiring property or that try to correct human nature.

Yeah, My best friend throughout high school. I sent an email to his parents(I didn't have his) about a pro gun website, they replied never to send them any stuff about this, that the gun controllers are doing it to save lives, don't want militia stuff, typical liberal BS. Mind you this is common from a rural, hunting family, but they grew up in the 60's and apparently have been brain washed.
I sent an email back explaining my position, who I was in case they forgot. Couple of days later my friend sent me an email about how "belligerent" I was, calling me all kinds of names, saying that the army has round up all kinds of militia nuts like me, yadda, yadda, yadda, more liberal BS. He is a recent entry into the army, probably brainwashed him. I find this quite saddening, considering how great friends we were, that we both hated clinton, and  hating communism, yet it seemed he supported it now. It happens. I just found better and smarter friends.

I had a lot of liberal friends growing up.  Now most of them have grown up and seen a dose of reality and aren't quite so liberal anymore.  Give 'em time.

Even my wife, who listens to NPR I am slowly changing into a libertarian.  I know it is going to be a long haul but this former, never have a gun in my house type, anti, now will actually go to gun shops and likes my time with the "boys".  A very large tax bill helped this year too.  Remember we have the facts, so share them and give your friends some time.  Help them, you are their friend after all.

Edit:  I actually forgot. I had a female friend who wanted to date me a few years ago, but wouldn't unless I got rid of the guns and the motorbike.  Well, no dating but we're still friends.

My own brother. Granted there are four of us, and we're all OK with each other, but the second oldest (I'm the youngest) has been a flaming lib since he became a hippy anti-war demonstrator, commune living, sometimes cult member, protesting, McGovern-Carter-Ducacus(sp?)-Clinton, and Gore (I know I missed one) loving antigun pinko back in the `60's. He doesn't even do drugs or live in Yosemite any more - has three kids and a semi conservative wife, but he's still a lib to the core. The rest of us can't figure out what happened to him. As a kid he was an eagle scout, and he reached the distinguished level in the NRA junior marksmanship program (Does the Jr Mksmanshp prgrm even exist these days)?. He was always the best skeet shooter out of all of us, and has the highest IQ, by far. IQ has little to do with sense though.  We still love him and resist the temptation to spark up any political conversations when he's home visiting. That's the key. Once you realize your friend is your political polar opposite, you have to just talk about other stuff, if you want to still like him/her. It's not always possible, but that's the only answer I've found.

Hell, I've almost lost family members over this. If someone says they're anti-gun, I'm going to associate as little as possible with them.

I`m pretty easy going.If I think politics is going to be a problem,then I just don`t bring it up.I know where their at and they know where I`m at.We just avoid it.Best thing to do is invite them to a shooting range!In a few weeks most will be shopping for their first firearm.