Is It Time To Arm?

Is it time for supporters of health care reform to attend the town hall events while openly carrying firearms?

IndyDem's diary :: :: Some on the right, a small minority I believe, are clearly hoping to intimidate supporters of health care reform by attending the town hall meetings while openly carrying firearms. Now, I am a strict constitutionalist. I think, despite all attempts to pretend otherwise, that the 2nd Amendment is clear. These people have the right to bear arms. So I do not believe the answer to such not-so-subtle intimidation is to find ways to keep them from acting in this way.

But just as the answer to hate speech is not censorship, but rather more good speech – perhaps the answer to gun-toting nutjobs is gun-toting sane people.

The left has a large number of members who are military veterans (I myself am one). These citizens have every right to attend an upcoming town hall wearing an Obama t-shirt and carrying a firearm (assuming they meet all applicable state laws – permits, etc.). We also have police and hunters in our midst. These citizens are more than capable to safely handle their private firearms in such a setting.

If the right is not trying to intimidate anyone, then they won’t mind. If they are merely reasonable citizens utilizing their 1st and 2nd Amendment-based Constitutional rights at the same time – then they won’t mind someone else doing the same.

But, if they hope to scare people into throwing away their 1st Amendment rights – then a small quiet show of preparedness should redress this imbalance.

Thoughts...?
http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2009/8/20/769904/-Is-It-Time-To-Arm

YES! And wouldn't it be nice to have left-wing shooting ranges. Not fancy just a BBQ some benches and targets with the pictures of Sarah Palin and Michelle Bachmann on them.

Maybe George Soros will loan us the money to buy the land!

:spray:

That would be awesome!

with this behavior then the left will start carrying their weapons. Now having said that, I will say that once that happens the violent actions will take an upswing, it's inevitable.

This behavior should be stopped in it's tracks. The repug folks that want to carry their guns should be put in a caged area and they can carry all the heat they want.

It'll be conservatives against progressives.

if they want a facist government then let them have their own republic. We can wall them off and move on with rebuilding our country. I am sick of them.

There's nothing wrong with making sure your elected official is safe, but having rogue actors in the crowd would be a potential problem.

Of course it's irrelevant for me, as I don't own a pistol.

I'm not frightened of the Wack-O-Right, but showing an armed reply to them at these town hell meetings could possibly lead to conflict.

Protecting the POTUS, other elected officials and the general public during these debates is of the highest concern so I really don't believe that these RW gun-crazies should be let within 15 miles of any of these proceedings.

You want to bring a gun to the event? Great! We have a first amendment zone for you set up in the middle of Nevada. Play with your guns there.


Remember that Dr. King wasn't packing when he was spreading his message, but he was killed while doing it. So was Malcolm X, Bobby Kennedy, JFK and others.


Just leave the guns at home, and for the RW crazies that won't let's just rely on law enforcement to take care of them.

Don't you think they will finally stay away?
I for sure wouldn't feel comfortable among armed people in a crowd. People with opposed ideas and at least half of them nutjobs?

And who can assure that you don't have agents provocateurs in your group?

Luckily I live in a less gunutty country.

:shrug:

...why doesn't everyone arm themselves at Presidential events and town halls. We could be just like "safe" Somalia.

How's that working out?

I'm sure the Secret Service would love keeping tabs on thousands of "law abiding" citizens with guns at Presidential events. That wouldn't make their job any more difficult.

Everyone knows that in America, the President is the safest job in the world, especially for the first half African-American President. I hear they love him in the South. It is so safe that we offer round the clock SS protection for Presidents for the rest of their lives at enormous cost to the taxpayers.

At what point did we all collectively lose our minds?



The homicide rate in the US from all sources, not just guns is about 5 per 100,000. That's about .005% of getting murdered in any one year.

I can see why the threat level is so high that some feel compelled to openly carry. Of course if they also smoke or drink they have a far better chance of dying of alcohol or tobacco related causes than death by murder, orders of magnitude higher. But nobody ever accused Americans of being logical. Just watch the health care "debate".

The circular logic is that law abiding citizens who practice open or concealed carry are not a threat to the President. Of course what makes them criminals is when they break the law (perhaps by pulling a John Wilkes Boothe on the President.) So, by definition you don't become a criminal until you stop becoming "law abiding". So after someone is shot at one of these public forums in either a preplanned assault to garner attention or a heat of the moment encounter, will we all bemoan the criminal act, yet repeat ad nauseum the "law abiding" canard.

I can hear it on the 6 o'clock news now...He was a quiet man...

Get a frickin' grip.