People showing up with guns at the President's townhall meetings an implied threat?

They have the right to do it. So who cares.

It is funny watching the pundits on MSNBC almost wet their panties in fear, however.

The main thing they are ignoring is that there are already tons of people with guns at these events. Secret service, police, etc. Why are they not making such a huff about these people carrying weapons? Why, one of them could go off the cuff at any moment!

What gives them a privilege that a normal citizen does not have?

The real problem they have with these open-carry people is that they aren't state-sanctioned and controlled.

They need to get some perspective.

"To begin with, they might recall the day, back in the 1960s, when a contingent of Black Panthers walked into the California State Legislative chambers with rifles and shotguns – while the legislature was in session – to make a political statement. No shots were fired; no one was injured; but the incident was intended to remind government officials of the purpose of the Second Amendment. Ordinary people – not the state’s police and military – are to have the ultimate power in a free society. It is this reminder – not the gun – that most terrifies members of the media, academia, etc."

"The political scientist who worried that the carrying of guns at such events “creates a chilling effect” on members of the public might ask, if he is sincere, whether armed functionaries of the state might produce the same effect."

If people showed up at Bush's Presidential functions with sarcastic comments on their t-shirts they were put in fenced in "free speech" pens.

Guns don't kill people, haberdashery does.

{;-) Dan in Miami

He was shot by Jodie Foster's Hollywood lib boyfriend. They are very dangerous.

Also President Bush the Second dodged a shoe - which can also be very dangerous esp. if it's a stiletto.