This Reuters story on the newly beefed up self-defense laws in Texas contains a curious passage:

A conservative political outlook and widespread fondness for hunting also means Texans are a well-armed people capable of defending themselves with deadly force. [emph. mine]

So being politically conservative contributes to one’s ability to defend oneself?

Update: Many readers write to inform me that, yes, as far as they’re concerned, it does. And to be clear, I wasn’t suggesting that the idea in and of itself was all that curious, just that it was somewhat odd to see Reuters offhandedly implying that conservative politics = bonus points on the personal defense meter.