A Protestor Brings A Gun to the President's Town Hall Meeting? WTF?

This crazy anti-Obama shit is getting completely out of hand.

From The Huffington Post article:

A man carried a handgun strapped to his leg to a town hall meeting being held by President Obama in Portsmouth, New Hampshire on Tuesday.

It's legal for him to have the gun as long as it is unconcealed, the police told MSNBC. The man was on private property -- church ground on the roadway leading to the high school where Obama would speak. The church gave the man permission to be there. However, according to police officers, he is under constant surveillance and is not anywhere near where the president will speak.

I'll say it again. WTF?

The article went on to say that the man - William Kostric - was also holding a sign saying "It's time to water the tree of liberty" - a reference to a famous Thomas Jefferson quote:

"And what country can preserve its liberties, if its rulers are not warned from time to time, that this people preserve the spirit of resistance? Let them take arms. The remedy is to set them right as to the facts, pardon and pacify them. What signify a few lives lost in a century or two? The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time, with the blood of patriots and tyrants. It is its natural manure." (emphasis mine)

Perhaps Mr. Kostric is merely exercising his First and Second Amendment rights... but when someone brings a gun to a town hall meeting, carrying such a sign, his motives must be questioned.

Rarely, in my opinion, does MSNBC's Chris Matthews get someting right. He almost did today.

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So does Cenk Uygur.

As Cenk notes:

This is the same exact quote Tim McVeigh was referencing in a shirt he wore... before bombing the Oklahoma City federal building.

This crazy shit has got to stop before someone gets hurt.

h/t to Bob Cesca, Huffington Post and Talking Points Memo.