Earlier today, MSNBC’s cameras spotted a protester carrying a gun outside Portsmouth High School, where President Obama was about to hold a health care town hall. And, as he just told Chris Matthews on Hardball, the gun was loaded.
“Who’d be silly enough to carry an unloaded firearm?” said the protester, William Kostric.
Matthews then asked him why he brought the gun to a presidential event.
“That’s not even a relevant question. The question is, why don’t people bear arms these days?” Kostric said.
He said no one from New Hampshire was alarmed by seeing the gun, which was strapped to his leg. Maybe the people “bused in from Massachusetts” were alarmed, he said.
“They already have their health care scheme and their socialism. They can keep it,” he said.
Kostric was also carrying a sign that said, “It is time to water the tree of liberty,” an apparent reference to this quote attributed to Thomas Jefferson: “The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants.”
Matthews asked Kostric to say the rest of the quote — the part not on his sign. He only responded that was for people to “look up. It’s not a sound bite.”
“I’m not advocating violence,” he said. “I’m advocating an informed society, an armed society, a polite society.”
