Liberals Have Guns Too, Ya Know...

http://www.smirkingchimp.com/thread/23431

Liberals Have Guns Too, Ya Know...
by Stephen Pizzo | August 22, 2009 - 6:10pm


So, the latest way the wing-nut right has found to get everyone's attention is to show up heavy at healthcare town hall meetings. I don't know what loaded guns have to do with healthcare reform, but there they are, AR15's hanging on the shoulders of men in baseball caps, 9mm semi-automatic pistolas strapped, Bruce Willis-style, on their upper thighs. All loaded for ... what? Bear? Deer? Muskrats? Dingos?

Dunno. But there they are, loaded for something - prancing around with their hardware fully exposed with a, "mine is bigger than yours," swagger. And "I got a honkin' bad, uncircumsized assault rifle." (With flash supressor.)

Right wingers are always fretting about how liberals are on the verge of taking their guns away. Which makes me wonder if they realized how many liberals out here are just as well armed as they are? Because we are. And, take it from me as a life-long liberal, I know liberals far better than right wingers do and taking your guns away is not on the mainstream progessive agenda.

So, we liberal gun owners don't lay awake nights, stroking our guns, waiting for black helicopters to sweep in with storm troopers there to wrench our guns from our "cold dead fingers." We know that's not about to happen, at least as long as we don't abuse our constitutional right to keep and bear arms. (Civics Lesson: Every right in the constitution can only exist as long as those granted those rights don't abuse them... like yelling "fire" in a crowded theater --- or shooting up town hall meetings... just saying.)



snip//

One more thing. Imagine for a moment we libs started showing at these town hall meetings packing heat as well? Just how many nanoseconds do you figure would pass before some armed dimwit decided this was time to live out his personal "showdown at the OK corral" fantasy? Duh.

So, if those on the right are really worried politicians might pass restrictive gun laws, just keep tempting fate like you've been doing the past couple of weeks. Because when you purposely inject loaded guns into an already emotionally-loaded political/social debate, it's only a matter of time before the inevitable happens. Then there will be new gun laws. Because that's how it works in this country. We wait until something terrible happens, or nearly happens, then we pass a law against it.

Which is precisely why we now must take our shoes off at airports, even though everyone knows "shoes don't kill people, people kill people."

Think about it, Rambo.

Fear and intimidation, the only thing the right knows is fear and to intimidate people with that fear.

against a domestic terrorist. Have any Dems shown up with weaponry at a town hall to threaten the RW terrorists? I didn't think so. Have any paraded with guns around the halls of Fox News to menace Beck and the rest of the FNC terrorists? No. Did any show up with guns while the * admin was removing the 1st, 4th, 5th, and 8th amendments from the constitution? Shyearight.

The right knows that we can be intimidated, which is why they're intimidating us. Again.

are cowards and the ignorati.

open carry is legal in many states, and ubiquitous in some (like AZ) where we see people open carry all the time.

im not intimidated by open carry. nobody should be.

and by BEING intimidated, you CEDE power to the right.

simple solution: don't be intimidated

People who just can't manage to be satisfied with concealed carry, non-law enforcement people who feel compelled to openly carry firearms in public, have walked away from any sensible notion of personal self defense and have entered the realm of overt public intimidation. That's something to be concerned about---if you're a normal human being, with some knowledge of this country's history, and you're not toting around a right-wing agenda. And I'm neither a coward nor a member of the ignorati when it comes to guns; I own firearms and I have for most of my life. I know enough about guns to recognize somebody who has no business exhibiting one in public, regardless of what some thoughtless law allows them to do.

Like I've said before, I keep waiting for you to express support for anything other than a far-right position here at DU; I figure you'll do so, about the same time that all of the gun-hugging DU "liberals" take a break from their non-stop trashing of the Democratic Party and instead show up at one or more of these demonstrations and confront the gun-slinging fascists about Obama's real position on firearms. In other words---I'm not holding my breath........

Obviously it worked, as it has gotten some to advocate going to these fora to debate gun control instead of
health care policy.

And what is "Obama's real position on firearms"? He seems to have had several, depending on time and place.

While you're at it, could you elaborate on who are

Maybe liberals like these?:











http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harlan_County,_USA

http://www.pbs.org/independentlens/negroeswithguns/index.html

http://archives.econ.utah.edu/archives/marxism/1999w42/msg00022.htm

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0335034

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x5930759

john kennedy, NRA member btw.

it comes down to this. open carry is quite common in arizona. i see guys and gals open carrying all the time when i visit. big fucking deal. i strap a firearm on my hip every day at work, as a condition of employment. i have no problem with citizens doing the same, where it is legal.

there are any # of localities in arizona (and WA state, where open carry is also legal) that have very low crime rates. you may FEEL intimidated by open carry, but i'm not, because i have yet to see ANY evidence that open carriers are more prone to violent crime than non-open carriers . i DO know that those who carry concealed are significantly less likely to commit violent crime than the pop. at large (as same stats have been posted here many times, and this also matches my 20+ yrs law enforcement experience), so i see no reason to assume open carriers are some great threat.

any time , whether in a discussion, or whatever, that somebody lets the other person INTIMIDATE them, they are ceding power to them. and when somebody is intimidated for NO VALID REASON, he is acting even more stupidly.

there are people who are intimidated by black men, by guys with big muscles, etc.

it doesnt make their FEELINGs rational.

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They are hoping to provoke some politician into freaking out and trying to present legislation that would take away your right to own guns which would fire up more of the goobers and get great airplay.

That said, they really don't realize how many of us Commie Pinko types like our guns too, and know how to use them, and will howl if some pol tries to restrict them.

"No, don't look over there, look over here!"- taking air time away from meaningful health care reform, and secondly, provoke McCarthy, Schumer, and Feinstein into proposing an over-the-top response that they can use as grist for the mill of fear.

Who are these gun toters intimidating? Not anyone with any sense.

Jerks walking around in a crowd alone with guns strapped to their bodies? Big deal. Three people can easily come up behind them and disarm them nonviolently.
One guy with a knife can do it the bad way.

They're punks. They're posing. They watch too many movies.

They're looking for trouble. Don't give it to them.

at our town hall meetings, conservatives are the only ones who ever serve in the armed forces. After all, it's well known that liberals bleed fake blood. It's serious when they say it, it's sarcasm when I say it.

..then you can't pack heat in public. It's just common courtesy and good manners. They both pollute the atmosphere. And don't give me your, "I'm only exercising my constitutional rights" bullshit. Or, "I've got a right to defend myself!" From whom, exactly - all those violent criminals sure to be in attendance at town hall meetings?? At least admit the truth - You've never gotten over losing the election and you can't stand President Obama. So, like a schoolyard bully, you think that by intimidating others you will earn some "respect". Pathetic.

I'm a gun owner and a cigarette smoker. But in consideration for the feelings of others, and so as not to disrupt the free exchanging of ideas, I would neither smoke nor display any lethal weapons at or near a town hall meeting. Tell me, between cigarette smoke and a loaded 9mm Beretta, which one potentially poses a greater immediate threat to public health? Grow up, Billy Bob!

:dunce: :tinfoilhat: :spank:

I also have a liberal amount of firearms that I don't need to flaunt to impress anyone nor intimidate them. Taught my daughter to shoot at age 4 and she still to this day practices at the local gun range.

But this has nothing to do with health-care-REFORM and that's what the country needs more of right now.

Almost everything they do is motivated by their fear, and the rest is motivated by greed.


“I must not fear. Fear is the mind-killer. Fear is the little-death that brings total obliteration. I will face my fear... And when it is gone past I will turn the inner eye to see its path. Where the fear is gone there will be nothing. Only I will remain.”


Frank Herbert

There is so much truth in that one sentence. Thank you.

do we need to senselessly worry and hoard automatic weapons for IRRATIONAL FEAR that "the government" is going to take away our beloved weapons. :crazy:

They got it. Even here on DU, there are probably ten ZOMG GUNZ!! threads for every thread about what the President actually said.


How does a non-millionaire "hoard automatic weapons"? This middle-class gun owner would like to know.

I do own a couple of civilian Title 1 NON-automatics, but no automatic weapons; I'm one of those peons who can't afford to drop the price of a new car on a pre-'86 collectible.

hell the guns are doing at the town halls? We've got to find ways to force the MSM to admit that the crap the RW does is wrong, even if it takes us doing it, too.

We libs always want to show that we're better than the RWers and that we won't stoop to their level, but they seem to be getting their way with their lowly methods. No one in the MSM seems to be saying that toting the guns so close to the President is a problem. They just seem to be saying, "Oh, those people are mighty mad. They must have a good reason to be if they're bringing out their guns."

And would it be so bad if we got a new gun law saying no guns in town hall meetings? I'm not a gun owner, but I'm starting to think I should be. I'd like to the news reports of a huge spike of gun sales in Liberal areas. Can't wait to see how they spin that.

Yes, maybe I'm freaking out. Maybe they're not getting their way and Obama will win health care just as he won the election, but I'm not feeling too confident. And I"m sick of the bullies with guns and a big case of the crazy hijacking my nation's health care policy debate.

Feel free to dispel my crazy ideas, but do explain exactly why I'm wrong.

1) The White House has stated that the SS has determined that these people with weapons are not a threat to the President - they are outside of the security zone. So "toting the guns so close to the President" would be in the eye of the beholder. However, if the SS does not have a problem with it then I would defer to them. (note - only on the point of presidential security - I think the people with guns are trying to (and are) making a political statement and intimidate others.)

2) With the exception of one report in Arizona (not the President's event - a congresspersons TH) where someone with a CWP dropped their weapon I have not read any reports of weapons IN town halls. The people with weapons are OUTSIDE of the TH's, on property where it is legal to open carry per state laws. Many of these TH's are held in schools which is often (almost always in K-12) a prohibited area for open carry already. However, I would be OK with having the person holding the event prohibit weapons on the site of the TH.

the CW carrier let that happen? And isn't it dangerous?

some Glock handguns do not have what most would describe as a "safety". But my main concern is if someone cannot keep possession of their weapon they have no business being a CWP holder - and I am generally in favor of CWP. I know accidents happen but there are also consequences for accidents as well. If I were King - no more CWP for him/her!

They have no manual safety, but three passive safeties, and the striker is not fully cocked until the trigger is pulled (although if you dropped one and grabbed for it in the air, and accidentally pulled the trigger, you could get a negligent discharge). However, some older style revolvers (pre-mid-1970's, IIRC) are not drop-safe, and some pistols of older design (e.g., Walther PPK derivatives) are drop-safe only if the manual safety is engaged, so if you were to drop (say) a Bersa .380 or an old revolver on the hammer, you could conceivably get a discharge. I'd be more concerned about it falling to the floor and a child or incompetent/unscrupulous adult gaining control of it.

IMHO, scrimping on the holster is false economy. I do not understand someone who pays $500 to $700 for a carry gun and then puts it in a $10 holster that doesn't hold it securely.

be "ready to fire" if picked up by someone. Same as your last comments. Thanks for the extra details.

Shifting the debate to the gun issue is exactly what the protesters were after. They completely buried Obama's message under a deluge of ZOMG SCAWWY GUNZ!! stories by the gullible MSM, which is exactly what they were after.

They weren't dressed to intimidate, but to suck in the media (which is why the guy was wearing dress slacks, a tailored dress shirt, and a tie, notified law enforcement beforehand, and had a radio interviewer onsite). It was a red herring, and thanks to the gun-obsessed media, it succeeded.

why the M$M can't chew gum *and* walk at the same damn time.

than from reporting nuanced analyses of complicated topics like health care. So ZOMG SCAWWY BLACK GUNZ!! will always bump "Obama suggests X, Y, and Z as a path toward health care reform," unfortunately. Nor does the MSM seem capable of discussing the gun issue rationally; it's always the Chicken Little approach, now and then with a dash of Terrah! thrown in.

My guns are hidden and stay on my property. And don't forget the liberal ladies, the wife is a much better shot than I am. She's deadly with her .38 special.

When I what to intimidate right wingers, I take my targets which are pics of Rush Limbaugh, Hannity, Coulter but if the target is a revered right wing hero like John Wayne it really gets them angry. They never approach me but I can hear them mumbling shit.