I take the narrow position: openly carrying a gun to a protest is idiotic.And:
People carrying guns are acting like jerks.Yeah, I left out a bunch of context ... but it's mostly "on the one hand" baloney.
Readers would be way better served by reading my new blogging BFF, Dana Loesch, "To Put It Bluntly: People Didn't Bring Guns to Town Halls Until Thugs Started Beating People Up":
I was at the townhall where Kennethy Gladney was beaten in the parking lot (you can clearly see, when playing the video frame-by-frame, a man in an SEIU shirt grabbing Gladney and thrashing him to the ground. You also see Gladney limping afterwards) and where a woman was punched in the face by a HCR-supporter in yet another SEIU shirt. My camera rolled as a man with a clean energy sticker got into another woman's face and yelled "SHUT UP," and told another woman she was "ugly." While rallying Saturday outside of Russ Carnahan's office another HCR supporter tried to shove me off the sidewalk and crunched my foot - all captured on camera - in response to my genuine question: "Can you give me 10 reasons why you support single payer?"More at the link, and don't miss Dana's blog, "The Dana Show."
You want to know what else? I've had to close comments on my website, change permissions on my Flickr photos, and have security escort me at the station because certain people for health care reform began making vicious threats against me and my family. I've had to drastically change MY personal security measures. So yes, I know thing or two about REAL fear, bullying, and violence as a result of these townhalls and rallies and if the discussion is about violence at townhalls in relation to the presence of firearms, let me tell you: it's not coming from these responsible gun owners we're seeing on television.
People don't mention this when questioning why people feel the need to arm themselves to protect themselves. No, they call them racists and say nonsense like "It's because a black man is president!"
Keep in mind that a lot of the people showing up to these townhalls are disgruntled Obama supporters and black conservatives, but apparently their contributions don't matter if they dissent. People only mention the Gladney incident, my situation, the thugs attacking peaceful townhall participants in Tampa, et al., to call us the "angry mob."
The difference is that the people who began originally going to these townhall meetings did so to air months of grievances brought on by this congress's unwillingness to discuss healthcare; the majority of Americans do not support this legislation and congress refuses to listen. The president gets two hours of network airtime to pitch his legislation with no rebuttal allowed, not even by way of a paid commercial. Republicans were barred from amending legislation in the House. The Patients' Choice Act, a brilliant list of ideas, was wholly ignored by Democrats. Of course people who feel that their government isn't listening are going to be upset! Especially if their elected official is Eric Massa. But they wait their turn at the mic and sit down and clap politely for others after. The worst is that some congressperson is asked in heated tones why they exempted themselves from this reportedly-fabulous healthcare program they're proposing.
If people are concerned about violence at townhalls, perhaps they should tell groups such as Organizing for America, SEIU, and others to CHILL OUT. Does anyone else think it's odd that our government is telling these groups to "punch back twice as hard?" That 3200-supporters are being bussed in to disrupt townhalls of districts of which they're not even constituents? (I snuck into the side door at the now-infamous Carnahan townhall and the staffers immediately assumed that I was with Organizing for America told me about supporters who came from as far away as Kentucky in the "reserved seating section." Coincidently, those people popped up in the Kenneth Gladney video.) Does anyone question the tie between the amount of money that groups like SEIU gave to the last presidential campaign which may account for the administration's declaration that we're the problem?
The violence and pandemonium we've seen on the news has been caused by thugs acting with their fists not law-abiding citizens. Guns and knives are tools. Fear of inanimate objects is dangerous because it excuses and enables the actual perpetrator. Blaming guns for violence is like blaming your pencil for your spelling errors. Ray guns don't vaporize Zarbonians, Zarbonians vaporize Zarbonians (Gary Larson).
Its going to all come to a boiling point next year. The last town hall I was at was 70% protesters but almost every person under the age of 30 was an Obama supporter.
ReplyDeleteThey have been endoctrinating our children for the last 30 years in public schools. they have re-written history and changed what patriotism is for our young people. They figure this is their time to move. The next census will be done to give the large metro areas significant gains in reps. Obama is creating a private army.
Right now all the protesters think they can vote out the progressives in 2010 but it wont happen. They already have a plan in place. It is easy to see they will pass this healthcare, choke off medicare to give to the younger minorities, fix the census and start seriously clamping down.
Claire McCaskill when confronted with an over whelming amount of protesters just said if you don't like it vote me out of office. No politician would say that if they thought it was possible.
The next year will tell.