The Glade 4.0

The Tea Party protests had a lot of people show up to the protests openly carrying full-size rifles. I doubt there's a lot of that going on amongst these protesters.

So because you carry a gun you are a violent person?

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"It is true that democracy undermines freedom when voters believe they can live off of others' productivity, when they modify the commandment: 'Thou shalt not steal, except by majority vote.' The politics of plunder is no doubt destructive of both morality and the division of labor."

Actually I guess thats good, since these "protesters" can't seem to be bothered to be civil , law abiding, or clean up after themselves, I'd hate to see what they would do with the added responsibility.

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A man who has nothing for which he is willing to fight, nothing which is more important than his own personal safety, is a miserable creature and has no chance of being free unless made and kept so by the exertions of better men than himself. ~ John Stuart Mill

When you openly bring a loaded gun to a political protest, you are implying that you will use it if your demands aren't met.

If these so called protests keep going I'm sure we will see much more violence from the anti-corporation club in their store bought Che shirts, coordinated by their Iphones.

I wonder where the balanced coverage of these events is? I remember CNN reporters challenging Tea party protesters at every turn and even editing shots to try to portray the events as racist ( the picture of the black guy with the rifle zoomed in to disguise his race) yet the leftist media regulars seem to be desperate to portray this as the answer to the tea party.

Yet they won't report that the Dodd-Frank bill is causing a lot of these new fees to crop up.... /epic facepalm.

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A man who has nothing for which he is willing to fight, nothing which is more important than his own personal safety, is a miserable creature and has no chance of being free unless made and kept so by the exertions of better men than himself. ~ John Stuart Mill

No. Thats in your mind. You imagine the threat is there, it's not implied.

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A man who has nothing for which he is willing to fight, nothing which is more important than his own personal safety, is a miserable creature and has no chance of being free unless made and kept so by the exertions of better men than himself. ~ John Stuart Mill

Really? Why else bring the gun? Unless you make a habit of taking that gun everywhere else you go, you're making a statement by specifically bringing it there. A political protest where you're with hundreds or thousands of like-minded individuals is not a situation where you're likely to need it for personal protection. At least it's a lot less likely you'll need it for personal protection than in most other places you visit in your daily life.

Beat me to it.

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"It is true that democracy undermines freedom when voters believe they can live off of others' productivity, when they modify the commandment: 'Thou shalt not steal, except by majority vote.' The politics of plunder is no doubt destructive of both morality and the division of labor."

LOL. A protest isn't somewhere that you might need to defend yourself?

Really?

http://money.cnn.com/2011/10/04/pf/citi_fee/index.htm



This was on the front page. I won't argue that CNN isn't doing any leftist spin, like that article about the BofA CEO demanding that they have the right to make a profit, but it is not extreme and they are definitely reporting the other side.

As one of those people, yet I do tend to be armed as often as legally possible. If we knew the time and place of being assaulted or robbed etc - or even better if it was clearly marked out as a "you are now entering a crime zone" I could choose to not be at those places at those times. However it's not the victim that chooses the time and place, it's the criminal.

TL;DR - if I knew I was getting into a gunfight I'd either not be there or bring 3 friends with rifles.

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A man who has nothing for which he is willing to fight, nothing which is more important than his own personal safety, is a miserable creature and has no chance of being free unless made and kept so by the exertions of better men than himself. ~ John Stuart Mill

Xequecal:

Do you realize that fights break out at lots of protests? If there's anywhere to bring a weapon for self-defense, it's there.

Xeq:

As others have pointed out, not everything is about making a statement. But even supposing that it is a statement, why do you jump to the conclusion that the statement is specifically "I'm threatening violence"? There are quite a few statements a person could be trying to make, the most direct and obvious of which is: "I support the right to bear arms and to do so openly". Another possible statement is, "I have a gun, and yet I'm peacefully protesting. You don't have to be afraid of someone just because they carry a gun." It's sort of like, "we're here, we're queer" -- only with rifles.

I'm not going to deny that threat of violence is also one possible statement a person could be trying to make, but there's no particular reason to isolate that one statement as the only possibility. Moreover, preponderance of the evidence suggests, to me, that this isn't even the most likely possibility. How many gun fights have erupted at Tea Party protests? I'll make this easy by taking any example, whether instigated by an open-carrying protester or not. How many of said open-carrying protesters have waged violent resistance against the government when they didn't get what they wanted?

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Sail forth! steer for the deep waters only!
Reckless, O soul, exploring, I with thee, and thou with me;
For we are bound where mariner has not yet dared to go,
And we will risk the ship, ourselves and all.

+1

Stewart pretty much echoed my thoughts on this:

http://www.thedailyshow.com/watch/wed-o ... share_copy

You can't make this stuff up...

From Gail Collins at the NYT.

http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/20 ... nation/?hp

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"It is true that democracy undermines freedom when voters believe they can live off of others' productivity, when they modify the commandment: 'Thou shalt not steal, except by majority vote.' The politics of plunder is no doubt destructive of both morality and the division of labor."

So basically you are afraid all the time?

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Just like everyone who wears seatbelts is.

Hopwin how many times do you have to get called on making the same mindless assertion before you learn not to do it?

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"...but there exists also in the human heart a depraved taste for equality, which impels the weak to attempt to lower the powerful to their own level and reduces men to prefer equality in slavery to inequality with freedom." - De Tocqueville

Elmo -10 on reading comprehension Re-read Hannibal's quote.

PS: Wearing seat-belts is the law so -5 more for poor analogies.

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To be perfectly honest, I don't really think that most people who bring guns to Tea Party protests actually intend to make the threat, "do what I want or I'll shoot you."

That's pretty irrelevant, however. What's important is how other people perceive your actions, not your intent. And the perception is definitely that bringing a gun is threatening violence. Remember that things like an assault charge are based on the victim's perception, not your intent. This is no different.

Then why did the police in Harrisburg wave one of the guys over carrying an AR-15 and ask him "Hey where did you get that sling - I've been looking for one just like it for a while now?" and not charge him with the commission of assault with a deadly weapon?

I am sure someone seeing a black man someplace can perceive that they are about to be mugged - does that means black men shouldn't go out in public?

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"...but there exists also in the human heart a depraved taste for equality, which impels the weak to attempt to lower the powerful to their own level and reduces men to prefer equality in slavery to inequality with freedom." - De Tocqueville

The living wage for a menial laborer thing is actually a good goal. However, I don't think people are willing to do what it would take to guarantee it. A return to 1950's economic status would certainly be welcome though.

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Well Ali Baba had them forty thieves, Scheherezade had a thousand tales
But master you in luck 'cause up your sleeves you got a brand of magic never fails...
...Mister Aladdin, sir, What will your pleasure be?
Let me take your order, Jot it down -You ain't never had a friend like me
█ ♣ █

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Sail forth! steer for the deep waters only!
Reckless, O soul, exploring, I with thee, and thou with me;
For we are bound where mariner has not yet dared to go,
And we will risk the ship, ourselves and all.

People bring guns to exercise their constitutional right, same as right to assemble, free speech and political expression.

Do you only recognize the rights that you agree with?

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In time, this too shall pass.

I perceive Xeqs statments to mean he means personal harm to me. That means we can ban him right? Since it's only the perception that matters

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I prefer to think of them as "Fighting evil in another dimension"