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About Guns And Rallies

There have been several incidents of people with weapons being present at rallies or town hall type events. I have heard no reports that these people were breaking the law. A man in New Hampshire carried a sidearm to a rally and followed the established rule; he had to stay 1000 feet away from the building where Obama was speaking. The local police spoke to him and told him how far away he had to stay and to top it off, he was on private property and had permission to be there. In other words, he was breaking no laws. He was simply carrying his sidearm just as he does any other day.

Several other rallies have featured people carry slung rifles. These people were obeying the law and were evidently legally allowed to carry their arms. The media have gone nuts over this and MSNBC cropped a picture of a man carrying a rifle and then injected race into the debate. Black man in the White House, nuts carrying guns. The inference was that it was some racist white guy.

The photo that was cropped was of a BLACK man carrying a weapon. He was exercising his Constitutionally protected right to keep and bear arms.

The problem is, the people who are opposed to guns automatically assume that anyone carrying one is looking for trouble. The man in New Hampshire said that no one around him was troubled by his gun because people in that area are accustomed to seeing people carry weapons. He indicated that the folks bused in from Massachusetts were the ones who had a problem (and of course, the media).

I agree with him. People who are supporters of the Second Amendment have no problem seeing people carrying a weapon. I have no problems seeing people carry weapons. If any of these people had intended harm it is unlikely that they would draw attention to themselves by openly carrying a weapon. They were simply exercising their rights and that is something everyone should be comfortable with.

Anyone who sees a problem falls into the category of people who assume that a person with a weapon is intent on causing trouble. I see this as no different than the people who attend rallies and exercise their Constitutionally protected right to free speech.

The funny thing is that people who really used weapons to intimidate voters were given a free pass by the Obama Justice Department. Black Panther thugs in Philadelphia brandished weapons and intimidated voters. The slam dunk case was dropped by the Justice Department. Interestingly, Black Panthers showed up at the Republican National Convention in Houston with rifles in order to put on a show of force. Paul Begala celebrated them showing up with weapons.

Ken Shepherd at Newsbusters reminded us that 9 years ago during the Texas Republican Party Convention in Houston, TX, a dozen New Black Panther members showed up with rifles and putting on a show of force. Interestingly, Paul Begala celebrated the New Black Panthers’ showing up with weapons. Also, Kyle Drennen highlighted MSNBC’s Contessa Brewer lumping all gun-toting protesters together as white racists, even the black ones. Of note, one guest on Contessa’s show mentioned that there’s “anger about a black person being president,” but failed to mention that every assassination or attempted assassination of a U.S. president was carried out by a Leftist. Red Sounding

As long as they were legally carrying and were not trying to intimidate people then they were exercising their rights (though the show of force and their anger over a Bush decision might be viewed as intimidation). Besides, I doubt they would have had much success causing trouble. A lot of people in Texas carry weapons and the dozen Black Panthers would have been easily outgunned.

Where were these self righteous media types on these issues? Does anyone remember them making a big stink about thugs threatening people with batons? Did they devote any air time to discussing the hatred and impropriety of the acts of these thugs who were actually breaking the law? Where were they when Black Panthers were carrying rifles?

The Second Amendment is designed to keep the power with the people. Our right to keep and bear arms keeps us from being the victims of a tyrannical government.

It is also helpful when confronted by thugs at polling places wielding batons and communicating threats.

Other sources:
NewsBusters
MSNBC Cropped Video of black man with weapon. They clearly identify him as a white man.
ABC 15 News Video that shows the entire man. He is black.
Zomblog Shows the many signs advocating the death of Bush. Another example of media bias.

Big Dog

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