Actually, it wasn’t Herschel I was thinking of. I had to go look it up - it was Dale the old hippie who constantly spouted off about the need for restricting guns, even before they got to the farmhouse, IIRC. Of course, then he got eaten, so there was that consolation.
People like Freepers who have strong beliefs are not going to be swayed by silly shows like TWD. However, those who are impressionable, or don’t know any better, like most kids, might. How do you think the whole gay thing got so much traction?
And what happened to Dale? There was also talk that season about not giving the people who didn’t know anything about guns guns to carry around and use poorly. Which is perfectly reasonable, especially when they then trained those people up.
There’s nothing wrong with having some characters have wrong opinions. Conflict is the source of all drama, if all the characters land on the same side of every issue you wind up with STNG.