If those gun-totin’ thug rednecks hate our “guvmint” so much then let them move to a country that might be more suitable for them such as say, Somalia or Russia.
This protest group did everything short of threatening to kill government representatives.
[QUOTE=Cliven Bundy, from the wiki entry]
Addressing the protestors, Bundy said “We definitely don’t recognize [the BLM director’s] jurisdiction or authority, his arresting power or policing power in any way,” and “We’re about ready to take the country over with force!”.
[/QUOTE]
If the government had held its position, and that mob had followed through on the fantasies of this piece of work, I would have had no great problem with the government shooting these people over what at its root, is grass. I’m not really a law and order type of person; but when you start talking about violently overthrowing the government and actually show up with an armed gang, I can’t be terribly broken up when you are shot.
And seriously folks, if the Comanche couldn’t defeat the U.S. Government by arms, you’re not going to. Learn to convince people and win at the ballot box.
I can’t help but wonder whose side these armed rebels would take if a crowd of armed Native Americans started stopping vehicles to “ask questions” about their ancestral rights. I’ll go so far as to say they’d show up with their own guns ready to blaze down some darkies.
So you agree that they didn’t?
ETA: “Bearing arms” is specifically not a death threat.
I suspect the protestors themselves would be better at explaining their side than you’ve been.
I, for one, do not agree. These radical extremists showed up armed to the teeth, clearly meant to intimidate duly authorized public servants. The threat of violence was real.
If you’re brandishing guns, you are de facto willing to kill. Otherwise, carry mace and tasers.
You are looking in the wrong direction; for “federal,” substitute “corporate.”
But, it isn’t.
:dubious: Well, yeah, collectively so willing since about 1861!
Same reason they always do, they might be met with force. If the cops knock on your door, with no intent to arrest you, just to ask you a few questions about something you might have seen, they’re still coming armed, better safe than sorry.
And even mace and tasers indicate a potential intent to commit violent assault, albeit of a non-lethal kind. What someone engaged in a peaceful protest would carry is a sign, or nothing at all. Any redneck mob stupid enough to brandish guns would be very likely to be incited into using them.
Corporations aren’t all that united in their agendas. Growing wealth inequality we already have, which will eventually require some adjusting, but corporations are more likely to destroy each other than band together in some sinister cabal.
Of course it is, if you bring them to any kind of confrontation.
They are pretty much united in the agenda of making sure their collective voice in every capital is louder than anyone else’s, and there are many, many historical instances of them banding together in sinister cabals, and one current such instance is ALEC.
Is it your position that those whose job to is to enforce the law should come unarmed to a confrontation populated by those who are armed and lead by a lawbreaker who addresses the crowd with " “We definitely don’t recognize [the BLM director’s] jurisdiction or authority, his arresting power or policing power in any way,” and “We’re about ready to take the country over with force!”?
By that reasoning, the police were also issuing death threats…they brought arms to a confrontation.
Kids, can you say “false equivalency”?
Bearing arms is not a threat. “Brandishing”, as I understand it, means waving a gun around to assert power. That is a threat. Pointing a weapon at someone is a threat. In either case, force is justified in stopping that threat – perhaps even deadly force, in the latter case.
Does anybody have a citation showing the protesters did anything at all with their weapons except carry them?
Feel free to revise your remarks if you don’t like the implications of them.
Bearing arms is only a death threat when the arms are used to threaten, never by itself.