Guns at Town Hall Meetings
The big news story this week is already batshit protesters bringing guns to town hall meetings. This bothers me, but for different reasons than it seems to bother most people and I have a different perspective on this. For instance I understand what they're doing and why they're doing it. Gun owners see themselves as ethical and responsible adults, which most of them are. They see their guns as symbols of their ability to take care of themselves, which I suppose they are. And this is how they're associating the otherwise separate concepts of health care and gun rights: there's a link between "I don't need the government taking care of my safety when I've got a gun" and "I don't need the government taking care of my health when I'm already healthy/insured". It's abstract and tenuous, but no more tenuous than the Mumia or Leonard Peltier people showing up at an Iraq War rally I suppose.
I'm not worried about this activity to the degree that the big blogs and my friends are worried. The people who are doing this are the sort of people who are really into their guns. People who are really into their guns (in this particular way) are the sort of people who are also really into responsible safety and handling the same way that amateur pilots are more into FAA protocol and flight safety than average people are. It's very far from a good thing but if someone's going to be carrying loaded firearms in a crowd I'd rather it be those guys than, say, Code Pink or the Plant Native Trees guy. There's obviously a potential for both accidental and intentional discharge, and I don't endorse this as a good idea, but I'm saying that I'm a lot less concerned about that than most of my blogs and friends seem to be. They were too far away from politicians to pose a threat, and besides real assassins hide their guns and are careful to not attract attention.
That being said, I have several significant concerns and criticisms.
First, their grievances aren't especially coherent or even based in reality, their message isn't consistent or being conveyed persuasively. I happen to know what you're saying because I already know it. I'm part of the choir. Stop preaching to me and retarget your message in a way that's not going to alienate the majority. If you're just angry and blowing off steam then stay home and yell into a pillow.
Second, I'd say keeping a loaded firearm in that situation is a violation of NRA Rule 3. You load your gun at a range because you intend to start shooting. Cops load their guns before going on patrol because they might need to shoot someone. Someone could - just barely - make a half-reasonable argument in favor of keeping an unloaded firearm on their hip or over their shoulder with a loaded magazine in a separate pocket, but chambering a round in the middle of a crowd of people even if you don't intend to do anything with it is seriously bad news. Even if we assume that these people are completely stable and sane it's a much bigger problem if an unstable person tries to snatch a loaded gun away from them rather than an unloaded one.
Third, it's stupid evil. These guys are worried about a fearful public doubting their intentions or sanity and taking their guns. So what do they do? They go to an already heavily charged political event and start waving their guns around and occasionally dropping them. Speaking as an actually sane, actually responsible gun owner I'd like to say to these people "For the love of God please stop, you're not helping, and you're going to ruin it for the rest of us. Just because it is legal does not mean it is a good idea. If you keep insisting that it is legal and therefore a good idea you're basically challenging the government to step in and tell you that it's a bad idea by making it illegal, and I will blame you not them. Don't do this. Please."
Fourth, it's potentially the tip of a very troubling iceberg. Violent pro-lifers were agitating months before Dr. Tiller was shot. The American right has a deep-seated problem with political violence. I'm not saying that the guys in the picket lines will be the ones who do something terrible - McVeigh and Nichols didn't carry signs or megaphones - but they *were* motivated by paranoid alarmists who did.
Update: As much as I'd like to think that these guys are just trying to show symbols of their independence, this is clearly not universally true. People like this guy and this guy not to mention some of the people I grew up with are explicitly calling for bloodshed.
Update 2: If you're a lobbyist for a gun rights organization your job is to create the impression - whether true or not - that gun owners are responsible, sensible people. John Velleco is not good at his job.
Update 3: The guy carring the AR in Arizona attends a church where they pray for Obama's death.
I'm not worried about this activity to the degree that the big blogs and my friends are worried. The people who are doing this are the sort of people who are really into their guns. People who are really into their guns (in this particular way) are the sort of people who are also really into responsible safety and handling the same way that amateur pilots are more into FAA protocol and flight safety than average people are. It's very far from a good thing but if someone's going to be carrying loaded firearms in a crowd I'd rather it be those guys than, say, Code Pink or the Plant Native Trees guy. There's obviously a potential for both accidental and intentional discharge, and I don't endorse this as a good idea, but I'm saying that I'm a lot less concerned about that than most of my blogs and friends seem to be. They were too far away from politicians to pose a threat, and besides real assassins hide their guns and are careful to not attract attention.
That being said, I have several significant concerns and criticisms.
First, their grievances aren't especially coherent or even based in reality, their message isn't consistent or being conveyed persuasively. I happen to know what you're saying because I already know it. I'm part of the choir. Stop preaching to me and retarget your message in a way that's not going to alienate the majority. If you're just angry and blowing off steam then stay home and yell into a pillow.
Second, I'd say keeping a loaded firearm in that situation is a violation of NRA Rule 3. You load your gun at a range because you intend to start shooting. Cops load their guns before going on patrol because they might need to shoot someone. Someone could - just barely - make a half-reasonable argument in favor of keeping an unloaded firearm on their hip or over their shoulder with a loaded magazine in a separate pocket, but chambering a round in the middle of a crowd of people even if you don't intend to do anything with it is seriously bad news. Even if we assume that these people are completely stable and sane it's a much bigger problem if an unstable person tries to snatch a loaded gun away from them rather than an unloaded one.
Third, it's stupid evil. These guys are worried about a fearful public doubting their intentions or sanity and taking their guns. So what do they do? They go to an already heavily charged political event and start waving their guns around and occasionally dropping them. Speaking as an actually sane, actually responsible gun owner I'd like to say to these people "For the love of God please stop, you're not helping, and you're going to ruin it for the rest of us. Just because it is legal does not mean it is a good idea. If you keep insisting that it is legal and therefore a good idea you're basically challenging the government to step in and tell you that it's a bad idea by making it illegal, and I will blame you not them. Don't do this. Please."
Fourth, it's potentially the tip of a very troubling iceberg. Violent pro-lifers were agitating months before Dr. Tiller was shot. The American right has a deep-seated problem with political violence. I'm not saying that the guys in the picket lines will be the ones who do something terrible - McVeigh and Nichols didn't carry signs or megaphones - but they *were* motivated by paranoid alarmists who did.
Update: As much as I'd like to think that these guys are just trying to show symbols of their independence, this is clearly not universally true. People like this guy and this guy not to mention some of the people I grew up with are explicitly calling for bloodshed.
Update 2: If you're a lobbyist for a gun rights organization your job is to create the impression - whether true or not - that gun owners are responsible, sensible people. John Velleco is not good at his job.
Update 3: The guy carring the AR in Arizona attends a church where they pray for Obama's death.