12 Bring Guns to Obama Event in Arizona -- Including At Least One Assault Rifle

Posted by Tana Ganeva, AlterNet at 2:44 PM on August 17, 2009.

Last week, some random crazy guy named William Kostric was lavished with media attention after he appeared across the street from Obama's New Hampshire town hall with a gun strapped to his leg. Asked by Chris Matthews  if the gun was loaded, Kostric scornfully replied, "Uh .. wow. Who would be silly enough to carry an unloaded firearm?" Indeed.

Not to be outdone, almost a dozen protesters brought guns to Obama's speech in Phoenix today, reports the AP. One of them not only wore a pistol on his hip but carried an assault rifle slung over his shoulder. Asked why he came to event armed, the man told the Arizona Republic ""Because I can do it ... In Arizona, I still have some freedoms."

Josh Marshal at TPM writes that according to CNN's Ed Henry, there was another man with an assault rifle at the protest. This one, unsurprisingly, was chanting some stuff about the undesirability of both socialism and Obama.

Tagged as: speech, obama, guns, protesters, health reform