People carrying guns are acting like jerks. So are the liberals who have created a giant scary amalgam of a right-wing protester, who has done every bad thing that every protester has ever done. More than one person has now asked me how I can defend someone who shows up at a rally holding a gun in one hand and a picture of Obama-as-Hitler in the other, and starts screaming about death panels?
Moreover, having created this horrifying bogeyman, the next rhetorical move is to claim that this constitutes the whole of the opposition to your program.
Does any of this sound oddly familiar? Wait a second . . . it’ll come to you . . . yes, that’s right, it’s 2003 all over again!
RTWT
UPDATE: More from Megan on this topic here, and here. I think Megan brings a useful, non-gun-activist view to this whole thing. She calls out the left for not being willing to put their money where their mouths are when predicting all manner of horrors that are sure to happen if people keep bringing guns to protests.
UPDATE: Doug Pennington’s two cents on McArdle’s posts here.
Might want to remember that all these folks waving guns around, oh wait showing up with guns didn’t shoot anybody or even horror of horrors, threaten anybody.
Megan is under no obligation to defend any Americans civil rights. She only need point out that the terms used such as “brandishing” are incorrect and inflammatory. She might also want to point out that every presidential or political assasin was a left wing assasin with only one exception. (Hinkley)
Paul