Shows how much you know. Nutcracker, hammer, back scratcher (if it’s a long arm), vase… the list goes on! StaudtCJ, I don’t think anyone doubts your basic point–that sometimes a cigar is just a cigar, that someone showing up at the rally with a gun was not necessarily looking to make a point. I daresay, though, that in the two specific instances at hand, doing so requires some extreme benefit of the doubting.
I think TPM is going a bit far trying to link Hancock with the Militia groups. While I think he’s a loon, merely defending them, vociferously or not, does not make for that strong of a connection.
:smack: no no no no no… read it back in context as a direct, contradictory reply to you. Like this:
D: Because a pocket knife isn’t only a weapon and a gun is.
R: Shows how much you know. Nutcracker, hammer, back scratcher (if it’s a long arm), vase… the list goes on!
Man, I shouldn’t attempt humor at two thirty in the morning.
Some of them are openly hostile, so it’s That’s because at least some of them have implied they are pissed off almost to the point of violence. Maybe some are just carrying their guns like they always do, and there could be a cultural difference going on here. I doubt anyone has done a survey of this group of people. But in context, it’s hard to read bringing a gun to a political rally as a show of support, or as a neutral act. And in theory if you did go through with your protest, it’s hard to see the good side of more people carrying guns to these [del]anti-death panel[/del] health care events.
The #1 rule in gun safety is:
NEVER point a gun, loaded or unloaded, at something you are not willing to destroy.
If government agents are pointing guns at innocent citizens, then they must be willing to destroy them. I don’t know about you, but that rubs me the wrong way.
Conversely, if a private citizen points a gun at an innocent citizen, even without malice, he or she can be charged with a crime. Recently, a deer hunter was charged with a crime (indangerment, I believe) for using the scope on his rifle as binoculars to investigate a noise in the woods, which turned out to be a forrestry agent. No harm was intended, but the hunter had his rifle pointed at the agent while viewing him with his scope.
When those on the political left, out of nothing more than petty politics, make excuses for the innappropriate actions of government agents, it just makes me even more certain that I am in the right. (pun intended)
I thought the #1 rule was not to talk about gun safety.
Regardless, with all the cameras around in the crowd, has any photo or video actually showed up that show government agents coming close to “sweeping the crowd”?
And in the unlikely event that you do find some smidgen of objective corroboration, why on Earth would this be a political issue? Because people love Obama just so very much that they’re willing to overlook even his SS details mistakes? Because we all know Obama’s from da hood and excess gunplay is so natural it’s forgivable? Because people are so blinded by their LOVE OF OBAMA that they can’t see that he’s already bringing harsh dictatorial tactics to bear? Seriously, WTF?
Again, the Secret Service agents in question were members of the Counter Assault Team, who are charged with putting themselves between the President any threat that may present itself. They follow the motorcade with windows open and weapons at the ready. This is not a left vs. right issue; that’s how the Secret Sertvice operates, and their methods do not vary according to who is in office. The Secret Service did not transform in the last six months from the best trained and most highly disciplined professional security detail in the world into a bunch of armed yahoo thugs who cruise around waving their weapons at civilians for kicks.
Here is a picture of Me and Dick Cheney and several thousand other armed wackos at a rally I was somewhat pressured into attending. At several points, I was within 5 feet of then Vice President Cheney and any one of the thousands of us could have shot him easily, Secret Service be damned. We certainly wouldn’t have escaped repercussions, but Mr. Cheney trusted us with his life that day, and it is one of the few positive things I can say about the man. Even Slick Dick knows that just because you’re armed doesn’t make you a murderer.
I must admit I don’t entirely get this. There are a lot of things I routinely carry on my person: Pocketknife, calculator, phone, etc. And I too don’t really notice I’m carrying them, and feel a bit odd when I’m not. But I don’t just “carry a pocketknife because I carry a pocketknife”… I carry it because I find that a pocketknife is quite frequently useful.
Likewise, I can conceive of a person who gets into the habit of carrying a stuffed Pink Panther strapped to his hip, and routinely does so. But I would be very surprised to see someone doing so, and would probably ask why. And if the answer was “I carry a Pink Panther because I carry a Pink Panther”, I would be even more confused.
Don’t you ever get tired of asking this question? You do it seemingly in every thread, and you always get the same answer: if we knew when or if it would become necessary to defend ourselves, we would only carry it on those occasions. But we don’t, so we carry them all the time. Why do you carry a pocketknife? For the infrequent times you might need one. Same same.
I don’t agree with bigwigs demanding an entire interstate emptied of cars for their convenience, and I don’t agree with emptying an entire venue of firearms for their comfort, either. Fat chance either practice will end any time soon.
