Put the Gun on the Other Hip

E. J. Dionne joins the growing chorus pushing back against the gunslingers bringing their weapons to townhall meetings with the President:

Try a thought experiment: What would conservatives have said if a group of
loud, scruffy leftists had brought guns to the public events of Ronald Reagan or George W.
Bush?

How would our friends on the right have reacted to someone at a Reagan or a
Bush speech carrying a sign that read: "It is time to water the tree of
liberty"? That would be a reference to Thomas Jefferson's declaration that the
tree "must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and
tyrants."

Pardon me, but I don't think conservatives would have spoken out in
defense of the right of every American Marxist to bear arms or to shed the blood
of tyrants.

In fact, the Bush folks didn't like any dissent at all. Recall
the 2004 incident in which a distraught mother whose son was killed in
Iraq was arrested for protesting at a rally in New Jersey for first lady Laura
Bush. The detained woman wasn't even armed. Maybe if she had been carrying, the
gun lobby would have defended her.