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The appearance of weapons near the president at a speech and a healthcare town hall has been cast as either a danger to the president and public debate or a sign of that gun ownership is gradually losing its stigma.
A man in a shirt and tie carried a shoulder-slung rifle near President Obama's entourage in Phoenix Tuesday. Since carrying a gun is legal in Arizona, police did not take action against him or any other gun-carrying protesters.
I think overall it will help the gun rights cause. It did three things:
1. Showed that just because someone is carrying a weapon doesn't mean they plan on using it for harm.
2. Brought notice to the rights of Americans in some states that will lead to folks looking into what they can and/or can not do in their states.
3. Showed that even Democrats know not to make a big deal out of something that isn't a big deal. I think the presidents staff and secret service did a great job dealing with this overall, only the press seems to have their undies in a bunch over the whole thing.
The guy was a libertarian so it pretty much got dropped. Nobody was in any danger and no threats were ever implied. And Obama was not about to anger independants. But tweaking Obama's nose on gun rights didn't do him any good. The last thing he needed was being portrayed as paranoid and out of touch even further.
Constitutional rights trump the opinion of the constituency. That's the whole point of having a Constitution - to prevent political- and popular-will from corrupting the foundation. The Supreme Court clearly pointed this out in the Heller case.
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