This gentleman, "exercising his 2nd amendment rights," outside of an appearance by President Obama, was not arrested. His weapon was loaded.Others have gone packing to health care policy rallies, even being beseeched to do so by the right-wing media.
As Logan Murphy noted today, at Crooks & Liars:
There have been a number of right wing protesters showing up at Democratic town hall meetings with guns over the past couple of weeks, even at events held by President Obama. Many have made note that countless people were shoved into cages called "free speech zones," or arrested at events held by former president George Bush for merely wearing anti-Bush t-shirts, yet people have been allowed to openly carry loaded weapons while protesting against Obama, for the most part without incident. How many of you have either posted or said aloud something along the lines of the following statement:
Can you imagine what would would have happened if a protester had brought a loaded gun to a Bush event?
Of course, that protester would have been tased, beaten, arrested and labeled a terrorist -- but times have changed:
Armed men seen mixing with protesters outside recent events held by President Obama acted within the law, the White House said Tuesday, attempting to allay fears of a security threat.
Robert Gibbs, the White House press secretary, said people are entitled to carry weapons outside such events if local laws allow it. "There are laws that govern firearms that are done state or locally," he said. "Those laws don't change when the president comes to your state or locality."
Not everyone agrees:
"What Gibbs said is wrong," said Paul Helmke, president of the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence. "Individuals carrying loaded weapons at these events require constant attention from police and Secret Service officers. It's crazy to bring a gun to these events. It endangers everybody." Read on...
Personally, I believe it's just a matter of time before one of these gun-toting, Fox News-inspired whackjobs take a shot at the president or a Democratic member of Congress.
Here's a YouTube of a woman being arrested at a McCain-Palin event, merely for carrying a McCain=Bush sign:
Anyone who goes to Dimond High School this afternoon to hear Sen. Murkowski talk about and answer our questions about health care, should keep all this in perspective.
Typically, though, the teabaggers and Larouche nuts are only disrupting appearances by Democrats, as their behind-the-scenes controllers demand.
6 comments:
Just because you have the right to do something does not necessarily mean you should do it. Common sense and a sense of protocol should prevail. I hope that the Democrat's attempt to be as "un-Bush" as possible does not blow up in their faces, literally. Can we please have some common sense?
@ Anonymous: You're wrong (this is ironic).
Here's a story from Denmark, where I grew up: In Denmark today, if someone - let's call him "A" - makes some vile public racist defamatory propaganda, and then someone else, "B", say "that's stupid and vile", then A and everybody else gets to yell to B: "you're violating A's freedom of speach!" But it doesn't stop there. No, now B is required to also make vile defamatory racist statements or else he's not in favor of Freedom of Speech.
You see, rights are not in fact something that you CAN do (using sound judgment), but something you MUST do. If you don't exercise your rights for everything all the time - even when that means hurting and intimidating other people - then by default you loose them. That's how wacky logics work.
Wackos and morons with faulty logic -- all over the world... *Sigh* I am loosing my last bit of hope for humanity.
I was thinking about this just last night; if we had only known that carrying a gun everywhere was our right to stand outside the building, we could have come out of the crowd corrals at the RNC and joined everyone at the convention center to watch Palin and McCain at work.
I can only assume that this insanity is going to be ratcheted up at the next G-8 get together... everyone will be armed.
I hate to think it, but its only a matter of time...
This is disturbing. To carry a visible weapon when there is no reason to be carrying one is a not-so-subliminal threat. For anyone other than a peace officer or licensed security guard to bring a firearm to a public gathering should be forbidden as disorderly conduct. I think it's more likely that someone will be hurt in a scuffle than that someone will be intentionally shot, but in any case it's an entirely unnecessary risk. Most states make it illegal to drive with an open bottle of liquor in the car, even if the driver doesn't touch it, because it's an obvious and avoidable temptation to reckless conduct. Same here.
Speaking of street violence, my wv is "persia."
Media is on the rampage to help pull the trigger...
Opening Curtain Call..
the stage is set, the actors move in and creates the illusion. Those who watch yell and scream slanderous names at the actors. But the actors continue to deceive. wouldn't it be ironic to find out that the democratics are really the stage crew and the director.
The man is black and you are bitching about his right to carry a gun? I highly doubt he has much in common with the LaRouche crowd though, although you do.
Far right/far left same thing.
Would you be bitching if it was a New Black Panther or a Nation of Islam clown standing there with a gun? I highly doubt it!
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