"Gunning for Obama: A Modest Proposal"

Gunning for Obama: A Modest Proposal
by Jonathan David Farley posted on Sunday, 23 August 20090

At a recent public discussion about health insurance with US President Barack Obama, a New Hampshire man with a gun strapped to his leg waved a sign saying, “It Is Time to Water the Tree of Liberty,” a reference to a quote by Thomas Jefferson that finishes, “with the blood of patriots and tyrants.” When asked by a reporter if the gun was loaded, the man, William Kostric, laughed, saying, “Wow. Who would be silly enough to carry an unloaded firearm?” Not only was Kostric not detained by police, police even assisted him, telling him where he could stand.

A few days later, a dozen people showed up at a Phoenix, Arizona speech of Obama’s with guns, at least two with semi-automatic rifles. The police made sure that the men with guns were protected from the people without guns! One reporter said he had never seen civilians with automatic weapons at any event of George W. Bush’s when the latter was president, but, the reporter added, in the infuriating style characteristic of the American media, which pretends both Left and Right act the same, that doesn’t mean they weren’t there.

Very soon, it will be commonplace for dozens of people with automatic weapons to be at Obama’s speeches.

More at http://www.laprogressive.com/2009/08/23/gunning-for-obama-a-modest-proposal

and I abhor guns. But I am concerned about our President's security and the permissive attitude about weapons being so outwardly conspicuous wherever he goes.

with AUToMATIC weapons?

i doubt it.

It would be nice it the writers had even a smidgen of a clue as to what they're writing about.

<sigh>

If they are going to allow these crazy morons into the event with weapons, what purpose does the security sweep serve?

It is utter bullshit that they allow guns into an event with the leader of the country. Given the history of shooting Presidents in the country and the fact that there are still so many racist crazies in this country, I would think there would be more caution in this area.

You can't carry an umbrella into an event like this but you can a gun.

They showed up to their own little protest offsite, well outside the secure zone around the President, with an unloaded small-caliber rifle and a few holstered handguns, hoping the gullible media would make a huge deal out of it and thereby knock Obama's message right off the air. It worked.

BTW, if you try to carry a gun or any other weapon into a Presidential event, you will be arrested. Period.

isn't something I necessarily agree with. But it's disturbing to see the rise in gun sales, the ratcheted up hate websites and talk radio a la Glenn Beck, the angry faces and hyperbole at teabagging events and town hall meetings, the continuing NO attitude of Republicans to everything Obama...well, you know everything we're up against. Farley is saying there are clearly people out there who want Obama dead, and the public display of weapons underscores that in my mind.

Roughly half of U.S. gun owners are Dems and indies, which is one reason why the DLC's obsession with banning popular guns in the 1990's bombed so badly.

The guns-at-offsite-protests thing appears to be a publicity stunt intended to shift the media debate away from the health care issue, which the gun-obsessed media has been only to happy to oblige.