Protester seen with gun outside Obama town hall

What an idiotic statement, are you left alone often?

Someone legally carrying a gun doesn't bother me in the slightest.

However, someone carrying a gun (legal or otherwise) combined with the presence of a President receiving many, many death threats, during a series of protests that have become increasingly aggressive, while carrying a sign that has strong connotations of violence is scary to me.

It's not about the 2nd Amendment. It's about putting a number of facts together to create a disturbing picture.

I don't think a would be assassin would bring this attention to himself. The moment this individual made the decision to carry openly during the protest he would be aware that he would be closely watched. I feel this was done as a statement. As well as the sign. Although it references a bloody time, the phrase is commonly used metaphorically. It is important to remind people of the freedoms we cherish and how they came about. Today's fight to keep those freedoms is limited to our Judicial and Legislative branches of Gov.

"while carrying a sign that has strong connotations of violence is scary to me"

I didn't see any sign that has strong connotations of violence.

Are you afraid of snakes?

The sign only innocuous if you don't know context.

The original quote is: "The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants."

Well what would happen if people carried guns to McCain, Palin, Boehner or Bush speeches?
LOL they would be grabbed and taken away.

This man was a fraud. His real goal is to get the real crazies to harm our president. There are places not appropriate for guns and a presidential rally is one.

In my state I can imagine what would happen if some rube carried to even a speech given by the mayor. And its legal to carry here.

The organized insane want to threaten and that is what this is about. They want violence.

"The sign only innocuous if you don't know context.

The original quote is: "The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants."

Perhaps he was prepared for his own blood to be spilled, refreshing the tree of liberty as a patriotic martyr.

@khamburger Perhaps, but is that really any better? As much as I disagree with these protesters, I wouldn't want to see any of them hurt either.

I don't even know what to say about this. If you think that Kennedy was truly killed by a lone, crazed gunman, you have truly been brainwashed by the cult of big government.

Law abiding citizens carrying guns should be no threat to anyone but criminals. Of course, our government has been a criminal oganization for decades, so, ... maybe.

The same people who killed Kennedy, the shadow upper 2 percent with all the money, want Obama gone. The insurance monopolies want him gone. They want to overthrow our government and I hope the Secret Service is loyal to our president. This is horrible! Our President needs to be protected from these crazy and dangerous seditious people.

book seller, they are trying to overthrow the government and start some horrific violence. They may be trying to incite crazies to harm the president. I hope DHS investigates this seditious behavior.

A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed.

@Khamburger on your statement, "The Second Amendment says clearly, the American people have a right to keep and bear arms." Would this be with or without regard to a well regulated Militia, as per the Second Amendment to the Constitution as passed by the U.S. Congress?

ETA: To the subsequent commenters, I thank you for taking the time to post to a tedious question. It's unfortunate that it took such a question in order to gain additional depth to the "right to bear arms" statements that sometimes appear to be automatic. Unfortunately, these details seem needed when asserting one's right to bear arms, especially when doing so in relation to a so-called push button topic on the Internet.

Further, the "Penn & Teller's Bullsh!t" video is very much worth watching, thank you to Ricky84 for posting it to this conversation (by the way, I am familiar with it, but thanks again for embedding it as part of the thread).

This one gets so tedious. The Supreme Court ruled finally and clearly last year that the right to keep and bear arms is an INDIVIDUAL right. There is no way to claim that this would be a collective right (especially considering there are no such things as collective rights) since every other right listed in the Constitution that refers to "the people" is taken to mean an individual right.

And, just who is the militia? By law and tradition it is EVERY able bodied man. At the time of the writing of the Constitution, every member of the militia, every able bodied man, was expected to be able to be mustered and provide his own weapons.

The arguments trying to make the second amendment mean something other than an individual right are specious, anti-freedom and anti-American.

I agree with the right to bear arms and I am against excessive law enforcement.

Just a note that the gun isn't the only reason the man was suspicious. The sign he was holding could imply that he wants to water the liberty tree with obama's blood. it's not as obvious as carrying a sign that says "i'm gonna shoot me some liberals", but following the logic, I think it is justified to be concerned about that particular man, but not JUST because of the gun. It's the gun and the implication of the message on the sign. He is well within his rights, I mean it's not like they arrested him for attempted assassination, but it would be silly not to be concerned.

Well honestly, this is the type of situation that Thomas Jefferson had referred to. The man is standing for liberty and freedom like ol TJ had hoped.

And as Thomas Jefferson said, the only reason for the 2nd ammendment was to be able to protect ourselves when the government comes to take our guns.

Can you imagine someone at a Bush Rally in N. Hampshire having a gun. lol What hypocrites. GW would have had that guy in jail, and there are situations when someone should not be armed. A presidential speech or rally is one.
BTW I would agree with GW for preventing anyone with a gun at his speech.

Kathie your fears we discussed this morning are already being reported in the news.

As a 15-year concealed carry weapon permit holder in the state of PA, I agree obviously about this person's second amendment right...HOWEVER, this person has to be COMPLETELY outside of their mind or just so willing to spend a few days in jail just to prove a point. Either way, I find it incredibly STUPID to be armed anywhere near a gathering in which our CIC is making an appearance. Just as there are many other common sense places for a civilian to not be armed, such as in a bar, airport, military base, etc., it seems apparent to anyone with an iota of SENSE that this man is making a REALLY bad move.

The man was just holding a firearm people, on his hip. Perfectly legal. Stupid given the circumstances, but perfectly legal.

Yeah, how dare a citizen arm him/herself? WTF, do they think this a free country?