It is not about your right to carry a gun.

You have that right. It is there in somewhat mangled and perhaps deliberately obscured English, in the Bill of Rights.

"Fred Solop, a Northern Arizona University political scientist, said the incidents could signal the beginning of a disturbing trend. "When you start to bring guns to political rallies, it does layer on another level of concern and significance," he said. "It actually becomes quite scary for many people. It creates a chilling effect in the ability of our society to carry on honest communication."in a representative democracy."

http://www.philly.com/inquirer/world_us/20090818_Protesters_display_firearms_at_Obama_events.html

This is about civility, about the temper of political discourse in a democratic society. When one side in a political debate shows up armed and dangerous, we as a society are heading toward discourse by gunfire. Pretending otherwise, posturing that there is no connection here, that the organized militant right protesting against this administration with vile hate filled rhetoric, as they have been doing since last August, is somehow separate from these same people now showing up at public events openly armed, that the now clearly coordinated incidents of openly armed protesters are just an unrelated exercise of 2nd amendment rights, is naive and/or dishonest. A message is deliberately being sent, a message both to us, progressive americans, and to the right.

That message is clear as day. "We will kill you".

We are in a place as a nation that we have not been in since the 1850s. This is not a good place.

And we are free to put a big bright spotlight on their sickening hate.

What would they think if we strapped on guns and went to their rallies. I but the police would treat it differently.

I would never take that right away from them, but we have the same right to criticize them for doing it, and we have the right to be more than a little alarmed that Americans hold such views in 2009.

Has anybody read that Nazis are gonna march in New Jersey? I read it in the newspaper. We should go down there, get some guys together, ya know, get some bricks and baseball bats, and really explain things to 'em.

There was this devastating satirical piece on that on the op-ed page of the Times, just devastating.

A satirical piece in the Times is one thing, but bricks and baseball bats really get right to the point.

Oh, but biting satire is always better than physical force.

No, physical force is always better with Nazis.

Perhaps I figured them out this time...

Watching people carry everywhere kind of reminds me of small children
with their blankets. Probably it's for the same reason -- feeling safe.

Things are changing because they have to. But this messes with their feelings
of security. There are lots of different reactions we're not seeing: Some
people drink, some people eat, some people smoke. These guys need to feel
like they have some control over what happens to them personally.

Hence, the guns.

I think the reason they're "getting away with it" at the town halls is that
the security professionals know this.

Except for the fact that these clowns could kill people with their antics,
I actually realize I should be feeling sorry for them...

:)

where these gun-toting morons were when bush was speaking?


Probably in the closet?? Hmmmm.