Obama, assault rifles, and threats

Are the growing numbers of armed protesters at Obama events abusing their right to bear arms?

Am I missing something here? said Rich Lieberman in the San Francisco Chronicle. A dozen gun-wielding protesters, including one with an AR-15 assault rifle, can wander outside the Phoenix convention hall where President Obama is addressing the VFW, and it’s all fine and legal? I thought “the Secret Service would haul your behind straight to jail” for even verbally threatening the president—and Obama gets way more threats than most. “Scary stuff.”

Assuming these are “militant gun-rights activists,” and not government plants, said Glenn Reynolds in Instapundit, I’d urge them to avoid presidential events. But I’m not convinced that there are “crazy armed mobs everywhere!!!!” There’s been minimal violence at the town halls and Obama events, and none from the occasional armed protesters.

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