U.S. gun owners pack heat in public to protest Obama’s ‘Marxist’ agenda

Demonstrators carrying their weapons rally at Gravelly Point in Arlington, Virginia, across the Potomac River from Washington, D.C., citing second amendment issues as their cause for protest. Photograph by: Olivier Douliery, Abaca Press/MCT

Canwest News | Apr 19, 2010

By Sheldon Alberts

ARLINGTON, Va. — This time, they came armed.

They came with loaded combat pistols strapped to their belts, assault rifles slung over their shoulders and extra 12-bullet clips in their pockets, just in case.

They came carrying signs proclaiming that “Freedom Never Fails, but socialism does.” And they came with fiery rhetoric that likened the U.S. government to the 9/11 hijackers and President Barack Obama to Karl Marx.

In a brash display of their opposition to Congress and the Obama administration, about 75 weapons-bearing demonstrators gathered in the shadow of America’s most iconic monuments to freedom Monday to protest a government they claim is trampling their liberty.

Technically a rally to “Restore the Constitution,” the event served as a controversial showcase for members of America’s civilian militias, gun rights activists and other anti-government groups whose prominence has grown since the 2008 presidential election.

“Obama was mentored by Marxist. He is a Marxist and he is going to lead this country down the Marxist collapse agenda and roadmap of Europe,” said 41-year-old Geoffrey Bean, who travelled from Sacramento, Calif., for the rally.

“Never in history have Marxists understood anything but the barrel of a gun. Ever. And so we brought the barrels of our guns to show them that they are not going to take away our constitutional rights without a fight.”

Larry Pratt, executive director of the Gun Owners of America, said American citizens established the federal government and “we can un-establish it, too.”

The protest marked the first-ever “open carry rally” held in a U.S. national park. The gun rights activists gathered at Gravelly Point, which sits astride the Potomac River within view of the Washington Monument, the Jefferson Memorial and the U.S. Capitol.

Ironically, they were allowed to carry their weapons openly because of legislation signed recently by Obama that legalizes the carrying of loaded guns in national parks.

“To tell you the honest truth, him signing a law saying that I can stand here (with a loaded gun) doesn’t mean anything to me,” said Daniel Howley, 53. “The constitution says I can stand here.”

The decision to hold the armed anti-government rally on April 19 was deliberate and — for some — incendiary.

It was on April 19, 1775, that American soldiers exchanged fire with the British at Lexington and Concord, Mass., beginning the War of Independence.

But critics of the rally noted the protest also fell on the anniversary of a more shameful event — 15 years after Timothy McVeigh, an anti-government Army veteran, detonated a truck bomb at the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City, killing 168 people.

At past rallies against the Obama administration across the U.S., gun rights activists have carried signs saying “We the People came unarmed . . . this time.”

It is slogans like that — and armed events like the one on Monday — which worry critics, who say anti-government activists are inciting violence.

“This is a great country, full of great people who do not espouse violence. But these people here today do,” said Martina Leinz, a Virginia resident who protested the armed protesters on Monday.

Laura Austin, another counter-protester, carried a sign that said “They are Terrorists, Not Patriots” and “Timothy McVeigh Was Not a Hero.”

The charges of extremism and comparisons to McVeigh angered several of the armed demonstrators, who said the Oklahoma City bombing did not inspire their rally.

“They want to make us non-patriotic. I don’t care what the hell Tim McVeigh did,” said Walter Seidel of Ruidoso, New Mexico. “Anyone who understands our history — the ‘shot heard around the world’ was fired this day 235 years ago.”

Timothy Whittamore, 44, drove from Independence, Ky., so he could wear his 9 millimetre pistol at the rally.

“Rosa Parks stood up on a bus one day and made a statement that changed the world,” said Whittamore, likening himself and other protesters to the late civil rights activist. “When she stood up on that bus, it’s the same thing we are doing here today.”

Many of the anti-government protesters said they most fear Obama and Congress would restrict their Second Amendment rights to bear arms.

But several armed protesters expressed an overriding worry that other recent events — from passage of health care legislation to the bailout of Wall Street — are placing the United States on the cusp of becoming a totalitarian state.

“The enemies to the constitution are not over in Iraq. The enemies to the constitution are not in Afghanistan. The enemies of the constitution are across this river,” said Tom Fernandez, 32, founder of Alarm and Muster, a communications network established to reach people in case of constitutional emergencies.

“If you trample under your feet the freedoms of this country just as quick as you drink a glass of water, I am not your friend. I am not your friend.”

Eric Stinnett, a 39-year-old engineer from Alabama, called the U.S. government an “unjust authority” and likened today’s lawmakers in Washington to the Sept. 11 terrorists: “Does our government not act like suicidal hijackers?”