Protester seen with gun outside Obama town hall

Right. He's threatening the Joke-in-Chief by open carrying a weapon. That's about as stupid a comment as saying someone driving a car is threatening pedestrians.

You know jubal if people would just reflect on the amazing similarities between the two events and the different responses to them... it speaks volumes.

what do you think..?

yes and lets ad this to the scenario, lets say it was at the site of the world trade center, where he was giving his speech about shock and awe.

Good points! I think they have only made packing gun legal with permits but not for knives, thus they can arrest someone with a knife. They obviously over-reacted to an elderly woman, but from the news, they seem to over-react often and sometimes kill people who are not really a threat.
No one should be near the president or other official with any kind of weapon. Perhaps they need to inform the public of that because some obviously don't know.

itivol, the problem people have is not with protest but with disrupting to the extent that people can not get their questions answered.
They will not let the Senators answer questions. And some have had their lives threatened by these people.

Titvol,

The answer to your question is layered. Propaganda, from years of anti-gun organizations for one!

The interuption in critical, and common sense thinking due to a over-medicated citizenry.

And then there is the obvious addition of comments coming directly from people who have no desire to make coherent, and rational statements.

Trolls in other words.

Hatred, dividing people by race and religion, these are the things that the RW uses. They appeal to the lowest of human traits.

Hitler did the same. Kennedy appealed to our higher moral values.

Code Pink does not pack.

It so this would be very bad. But this does not explain the loud intentional debate stopping old farts who are on medicare who were bussed into the meeting by the K street scum.

Carmalite that is the nature of lobbying. It's commonplace in politics and it shows either a certain amount of naivety to be surprised that corporations would pay others to promote an agenda.

Do you honestly think that there is no astroturfing lobbying group to counter the Obamacare protestors?

Funny, I thought only Ron Paul worked with militias, right wing extremists and white supremacists.

unima, the right doesn't have the monopoly on wing-nuts, the left have more than their share as well.

...maybe he was prepared for leftist union thugs, hmmm?

massanova, The corporations are not supposed to bus in citizens. Lobbying is supposed to be directed to Senators not to create dangerous mobs.

It seems obvious that they don't want debate and information but want to shout down information like the brown shirts did in Germany to prevent discussion.

Finally someone who gets it. Thank you.

The RW stooped to this loud obnoxious rude behavior and no one made them do it.
They were told to shout down Senators and disrupt and that is what they are doing. Its not the media, its the republican machine doing what it does best: distorting the message so their dummies can't get facts and debate.
And the gun carrying loon......he made his own decision to behave like a terorist.

I wonder what the conservative news groups would have had to say if it was a brown man with a gun at a Bush town hall meeting...

I'll give you three guesses.

Chances they would have shot him down first... very very high.

div...

So this is a racial issue? Is that all you Kool-Aid drinkers know is race? This guy did nothing wrong, made no threats and never intimidated anyone. What's the problem? You don't think the secret service and police weren't hovering around this guy, waiting for him to make a mistake? Please. Lay the race cards down and look at the reality of the situation for a minute.

Onto their pointy white heads.

Bearing arms is now being equated with being a klan member. People like you are bereft of anything resembling intelligence, or common sense!

Bearing an arm is an out of date amendment that does not compensate for any level of progress within society. It is an empty ideal that allows the opportunity for "idiots" to feel the "right" to carry something that requires absolutely no intelligence what so ever to carry. Most people show up to protests with signs and a statement. What kind of statement does bearing an arm state? Fear? Intimidation... for what? Tradition and an outdated ideal.

So yeah...equating a gun carrying idiot with the klan is meant to be a genearlized representation of the lack of intellect one has to "bear an arm" at a "peaceful" protest. If not klan..? What do you prefer? Hick? Narrow minded, fear insighting, initmidating asshole? Take your pick. Because from a generalized standpoint it doesn't matter what word you choose. Any level of representation of violence should be regulated.

In fact...this entire country needs to be hung upside down until all the guns fall out of their pockets and then collectively slapped up side the head. Bad gun bearer. Bad! Cops and Military should have guns. Not "common man."

It's not the "bearing of arms" that's being equated to the Klan. It's the wearing of a firearm to a public political event for the purpose of intimidation. VERY KLAN-LIKE.

borymp you could aways move to England. Seems to be more of what you are looking for.

I will say that openly caring a gun while protesting the president is a stupid choice. But taking away all the guns from law abiding citizens is ridiculous.

You talk about how much our society has progressed but that is simply your opinion. The fact is if some one is threating my life the cops are not going to be able to do anything about it. They are to busy raising money my handing out speeding tickets and fighting a failed drug war.

Now right wing militias are on the rise, home invasion robberies are on the rise and the cops are busy writing speeding tickets. I will keep my guns thanks.

Legal gun owners are not the problem.

@hawk. I don't think society progressing since the constitution being drafted is my opinion.

We finally have an ethnic president.

So it's safe to say we, as a country , have finally progressed. A little. I could draw solid examples from history books...but I think I made my point.

That being said.... I can't argue with you. Our country allows the right to bear arms. And a select few 'bad apples' can't represent the whole lot. If the country says you have the right to own a gun and protect your self from the evils you speak of...so be it. Doesn't make my point any less valid than yours.

Funny you should bring up England. They have knife problems that are in the news daily (refer to BBC1).

Enjoy your guns. I'll stick to biking, hiking, and other forms of recreation.

Too bad you live in an area where you have to protect yourself in such an extreme manner.

borymp, so do you feel England should ban knifes next? And then what? Forks? Sporkes?

lol. No hawk. Although nothing screams violence more than a spork.

I just might have to show up at a protest with a spork in a holster.

borymp if you get on the news sporting spork in a holster at a Town Meeting protest and will vote that up for sure.

That would be funny

Next Town Hall Meeting. Spork. It's my right.

Exactly. That is what the RW nuts want to do. Just like the Brown shirts.

You are correct. Idiots like this man will cause responsible law abiding citizens to lose their gun rights.
Those militias who are paranoid are another danger to the responsible law abiding gun owners.

This guy you call an idiot and the militias ARE law-abiding Americans. How in the hell can you possibly blame the threat to the SA on them? Damn carmalite, that just boggles my mind.

really dude...you're really going to stretch it that far? this is all a gov conspiracy?

sheesh. you and mel.

Thank goodness there are people like you to counter these loudmouths!

No one should carry at a presendential speech except law enforcement and secret service.

I think part of the problem might be the police departments themselves. I just wonder how many of them side with these teabaggers.

You are right! I can't imagine what would happen to anyone carrying at a Republican officials speech, no matter how unimportant the official.

This man is attempting to get the real nuts out there to harm our president. They are trying to incite violence. And this is sedition imho.
They are playing with fire. They want to harm our president and I hope the secret service does its job. DHS better be on its toes. These nuts are dangerous.

well isnt that what you guys did???protested and protested..and what happened?? are you dead?? are you in gitmo??

YOU GUYS are nothing more than just whinney bratty spoiled mothers..

are you guys sure it was not hillary with a hardon??

godsnliberals, The anti unnecessary Iraq protestors were not packing guns and threating Senators or the president. Senators have received death threats!

These fruit cakes can march down the street like the anti-war people did and get a permit. CNN did not cover the anti-Iraq protestors and did not properly record their numbers. But they are covering these uninformed old farts who are on medicare and loving it but don't want socialism of any kind. But they want to keep their social security. lol

If it were not for ignorance, the Republilcan party would have 40 percent less members.
Megan McCain is hopefully its furture, because she is relatively sane.

How do you know what this man's motivation is? You are guessing, and by coincidence his message is exactly in line with your own political philosophy?

Calling Obama a socialist destroys your credibility. For one socialism is an economic system, not a system of government, so why are you relating socialism to the ideas of liberty and freedom with respect to the right to bear arms... and for another, Obama is far from Socialist. I personally like many socialist economic ideas and Obama isn't even close. You might need to educate yourself on what Socialism actually is, in order to know that Obama is not even close.

What rights are being stripped from us? I am no Obama cheerleader, as I am Independent and I think he is doing many things wrong, but what rights did he strip away from us? Please no libertarian / laissez faire capitalist propaganda. I reject that philosophy out of hand.

Yes and no. Socialism is an economic system, but it requires societal intervention to spread those resources. It involves the money used to buy gm, dodge, banks, etc (perhaps more Marxist) and telling us that is necessary for the general welfare and will be economically profitable for the welfare of all. Economic freedom and political freedom go hand in hand. Government controlled money, production, expenditures, debt, etc are at the expense of the people and they are ignoring the voice of the people to do these things. Are you gonna be on the board of GM and make decisions for millions of Americans, because your opinion probably won't matter to that board. But government officials that spend your money as they please do. Now's it moved on to health care. It's a failed democracy that Thomas Jefferson also warned about. Those guys were on to something, too bad we didn't stick with it.

And don't forget that Marx qouted socialist policies just being the bridge from capitalism to communism....

it's irrelevant, jefferson was only one of several influential founding fathers and the era and land he was writing in and about don't exist and never really did.

and that STILL wouldn't excuse taking a weapon near a president. I'd say the same thing about bush except he'd have had his plainclothes take care of this guy before it made it anywhere near the news.

i would really wish you would read the entire article BEFORE you flap your gums...

what obama wants to do is a LOT WORSE than man with a gun in a HOLSTER..

GnL,

I wish you would refrain from personal attack

You only embarrass yourself with your immature and irrational displays.

The dude packing a gun was douche.

I support President Obama 100%.

Thats Oh Kay..Alot of the times I just read a couple of sentences and make a post and then I will read what people are saying and they say the things that I was thinking. OOPs

No Problem

First they put people in free speeh pens, second anyone carrying a gun would be grabbed and callled a terrorist and taken to jail immediately. They would be charged with attempting to assinate the president.

These crazies are trying to overthrow our government and they want a fascist theocracy which is totaliltarian and as bad as the old soviet.

Exactly. And if you remember, they weren't even letting anyone but Bush supporters INSIDE the doors of his events. If a person were caught wearing an anti-bush t-shirt or even have an anti-bush bumpersticker on their car, they were escorted out.

Why are you against him referring to a founding father's statement, exactly as it was intended?

If you would like a history lesson then read about Shay's Rebellion and what led to the comment.

Actually there is no law in NH against open carry.

No gun registration? Have you actually ever purchased a firearm before? Doesn't sound like it.

Actually I have purchased many guns, I also sold them commercially for a few years, do you know what "gun registration" means? Doesn't sound like it.

"I find it hysterical that these moronic news people think an assassign would stand around in public, with the gun he plans on killing the president with in full sight!"

That makes sense, except for the possibility he might be stark raving mad. Someone who has decided to throw their own life away by an assassination attempt might not have logic up to par with your own.

I certainly would not think anyone would think it logical to hang out near where the president is going to be with a gun and a sign with wording that it is time to water the liberty tree, when that reference implies spilling blood unless they were asking for trouble. It would be plain stupid for security or the media to not take notice of that.

"The guy is obviously just making a statement about his own right to bear arms, and waiting to see how AUTHORITY will react to that."

No that is your opinion. It might be correct. You and I don't know, and therefore it is not "obvious". Someone else might say it is obvious that he intended to use that gun because of the implication of the wording on the sign, but that would be an assumption as well. Nothing is obvious in this case. The only one who probably really knows is the man himself.

He's being paid to stand around and look crazy. Why else would he be allowed to stand there with a gun? We know the constitution is just a goddam piece of paper!

Well, GW thought the Constitution is just a goddamned piece of paper. There are others who will vehemently disagree.

Noxi,

Since he is standing in plain sight, it would be very simple for any secret service man to put him in their own SITE. One wrong move, and he would be swiss cheese.

Don't ya think?

let's put it this way dude, when is/has it ever been a good idea to mix political turbulence, presidents and fucking weapons? it's not cool for carter, it's not cool for reagan, it's not cool for clinton and it's not cool for obama.

I don't give a damn if he's planning on using it or not he's a fucking idiot for bringing it into such a charged atmosphere and I wouldn't bat an eye if he got arrested preemptively. If he's dumb enough to carry around the president he may WELL be dumb to try and attempt on his life.

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.

It's not normal, neither rational even if it is legal, to go on public places, crowded meetings with an loaded automatic weapon.

we are on the 21st century, police, FBI, army are here to protect you, nobody needs to go at wall mart armed!
wtf!!!

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?