Look, the Republicans in general, including McCain, vote to legislate their faith-based morality on social issues (gay rights, stem cells, drug policy, abortion etc). These issues all boil down to church state separation and whether we ought to be legislating the morals of the day.

McCain has made it clear that he will use his supreme court nominations to put in another Alito or Roberts on the court - and then the slim pro-separation margin on the court will disappear... when that happens there will be major changes in the country.

Overall, he doesn't seem like that bad a guy... we could certainly do worse... but he WILL appoint conservative justices if he gets the chance and I'm using my vote to try to stop it.

On the gun issue, I don't think a single president can make THAT big a difference (apart from the supreme court issue I mentioned) - so I'm not too worried about losing my gun rights.

You can rest easy, though... Texas would elect a corpse if there was an 'R' next to its party affiliation on the ballot - so my vote effectively won't count