The current debate over health care should be a battle of ideas, of philosophies. Bringing a gun to a political event or public debate is not a debate or an argument. It is a threat.
Imagine, if you will, that you are sitting at a conference room table and you are negotiating a deal. At one point in the negotiation, when the negotiation is getting difficult, the other negotiator pulls out a .45 and puts it on the table. That is a threat.
In the political context, the threat is that "if you don't see things my way, I'll pull out my gun and make you do it my way." As noted in the opening chapter of the book "Collapse", when a Ravalli County Commissioner (Montana) proposed instituting a system of land use planning, members of far-Right militias showed up at the public meetings, openly carrying weapons in order to intimidate people.
Intimidating people as a political tool is not democracy. It is fascism. And more to the point of this post, if you feel the need to show up at a political or public event while ostentatiously carrying weapons, then you are both a whiny ass crybaby with a gun and you are a disgrace to the the concepts of freedom and democracy.
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3 comments:
Not to mention that, as Bryan has pointed out over on his blog, they're showing up carrying in an unsafe manner that's more danger to themselves than to anybody around them. Like the dude who showed up with the AR15 in Arizona. The way he was carrying it, he coulda ended up being an assless ass if he'd been jostled wrong in the crowd -- as in, it could have shot his ass off, where the barrel was pointing.
The best way to carry is concealed if you're going to carry at all. All that open carry does is make you a target for every ass who's looking for a gunfight, or just an ass, period.
Great post, EBM.
The Secret Service needs to make a new rule: no guns or other weapons within a 2 mile radius of wherever the president is appearing.
Violations of that rule will be a federal felony and prosecution will be sure and swift.
BadTux, "Bryan"?
Karen, think it out. Your rule would be completely unworkable.
Case 1: The president is visiting the community center a mile from my home. Do I have to take my rifles out of my home and store them elsewhere, and if so, where?
Case 2: The president is visiting a place. I drive by 1.5 miles away. In my car are some emergency tools, including a good knife. Knives are weapons. That's a felony?
And how are you going to search everybody within a 2 mile radius?
Stupid rules are worse than no rule at all.
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