On Aug 20, 2009, at 5:17 PM, Arden Currie wrote: > > On Aug 20, 2009, at 10:30 AM, Chris Gehlker wrote: > >> In the Bush 43 administration a couple was famously detained for >> showing up at one of his rallies with homemade t-shirts showing a >> circle with a slash over the word "Bush".
Which was completely over the top. >> Now people show up at Obama >> events with hand guns and rifles and they are allowed to proceed on >> the grounds that they aren't breaking any laws. But that was never >> the >> standard. >> >> So is this a good thing? > > I think it's disturbing. I guess that greatly increases the odds of > assassination. Perhaps indirectly. I agree with Arno that someone openly carrying is the least likely to do anything. I say indirectly because, the Secret Service would have to keep an eye on them anyway and perhaps that would make their overall job harder, thus increasing the risk that an actual bad guy slips though. > In the back of my mind is the fear that racism is much > more widespread in every level of american society. I don't think that the people openly carrying are the ones you have to worry about. It's the nutjob loner that wants to fight the "new world order" or whatever. If they are in a state that has open carry laws, then they are likely just making a 2nd amendment statement. Personally, I wouldn't carry to a meeting with the President or near where he was going to speak. It's not like my gun would help in an emergency and there is no logical reason to add to their security load. Having said that, it would be foolish not to recognize that our first black president is special and might draw more loons than usual. I just don't think the set overlaps much with the open carry (or concealed carry for that matter ) crowd. > When Bush came to > town, here in Portland, they closed the freeway in both directions for > 2 hours, from downtown to PDX, a distance of 8 miles, so he could get > to his plane without delay. It's typical. When Clinton came to Columbus, they closed the freeways from the airport to the place where he was speaking for hours. I thought there must have been a chemical spill or something until I turned on the radio. > Reeks of fear, both Bushs hated coming > here. I think that the secret service would prefer that any president remain in an undisclosed bunker under their constant guard. Anything less than that is a compromise on their part and I'd expect them to take whatever steps they can get away with. =c= _______________________________________________ OSX-Nutters mailing list | [email protected] http://lists.tit-wank.com/mailman/listinfo/osx-nutters List hosted at http://cat5.org/
