Packing For The Protests
by digby
Columnist Jay Bookman of the Atlanta Journal Constitution reports:
This has been posted on the far-right Free Republic site, under the headline:
“Atlanta Tea Party and Many Other Groups, Facing Off the SEIU Thugs Wednesday”“Members of the various Tea Party, 9/12, and other freedom-oriented folks in the Atlanta area will be assembling in the vicinity of Georgia State Capitol this coming Wednesday afternoon at 4 pm. We’ll be providing balance to the ravings of the passengers aboard the SEIU Thugbus, which is scheduled to vomit forth its stooges at that same place and time. If you are within three hours drive of ATL, come join us. Dan and others from RTC will be there, with the usual accoutrements. As always, each participant is responsible for compliance with all applicable local laws. Rally point will be the corner of Trinity and Washington Streets in front of the Trinity United Methodist Church. Guide on the Gadsden flags. Rendezvous time no later than 3:45 pm local. There appears to be some regulations re armed protests on the Washington Street side of the Capitol, so attendees are requested to be flexible in your attire. We will attempt (but no promises) to get some additional clarity regarding the situation and post it here prior to the show. Take a stand. Join us in Atlanta on Wednesday.”
The advice that “attendees are requested to be flexible in your attire” is apparently a suggestion to keep firearms concealed. The original author goes on to claim that “the lefties are idiots who are very good at running their mouths… and also very good at keeping their distance from an armed American”.
I honestly don’t think these protests have anything to do with RTC (“Right to Carry”) so there’s really no reason to show up with guns to this rally. In fact, it’s intentionally provocative.
This is exactly what we were talking about when the Tea Partiers started packing heat at the Townhall meetings. It’s not that there’s anything wrong with protesting or counter-protesting, even in a (dare I say it?) “uncivil” way. But when you bring guns, it’s violent intimidation. I think this fellow makes that very clear.
He’s right about one thing. It’s probably a good idea to at least keep your kids’ distance from these “armed Americans”. These people aren’t all that bright and things could easily go sideways if some kindergarten teacher says something they could construe as “threatening.”
On the other hand, this could work wonders to end all these silly 60s style lefty protests if it catches on. I’m sure that would be a great relief to many people who find this sort of thing to be vastly unpleasant. But we might also have to really start questioning just how different from certain foreign countries we really are.
In a democracy there is no more inappropriate place to being a gun than a political rally. If this becomes common in our country, we’ll have devolved one more level into plutocracy — defended by a violent mob. Free societies just don’t have citizens packing heat to political rallies to intimidate their political opponents. Even by our own worst standards, this is not the American way.
h/t to bb