Question: When you go to a protest or rally, do you carry a semiautomatic weapon with you? No? Me either, but then again I’m not one of these open-carry nutjobs who feels it’s necessary to put their Second Amendment rights in everyone else’s face.
Stephen Passariello, however, did this recently at a protest in Denton, Texas. The protest was to remove a memorial to the Confederacy (which, history shows us, lost the Civil War) from a public place and put it in a museum. So Passariello showed up to “counter-protest” while carrying a fully loaded AR-15 assault rifle.
As you can imagine, he frightened the living daylights out of those who were there to peacefully express their opinions.
One of the protesters, Willie Hudspeth, was carrying a sign that read:
Some of the other protesters then called police while Passariello told them:
“Why should we move this, why is this just now a big deal? Why weren’t you out here months ago?”
Hudspeth informed the young man that he had protested at the memorial at least 50 times since 2000.
The 22-year-old Passariello said he had never seen Hudspeth before, then added:
“I’ve been out here every week for the past 22 years.”
A few minutes later, police finally arrived and told Passariello he needed a sling for his assault weapon. But the young man later disagreed and complained:
“I was encouraged to open carry with a sling, although it wasn’t required. I was told that I can stay, but they would appreciate it if I got my sling so people wouldn’t feel so threatened.”
Others who witnessed what happened said Passariello acted oddly. Adam Rinkleff reported:
“He was, like, angry and he was jostling [the gun] like this (motioning as if moving a gun at his hip). I didn’t know if he had the safety on, I didn’t know if that gun was going to go off at any moment. I would say he was pointing the muzzle toward people as he talked. I was worried.”
On Facebook, Passariello has made blatantly racist remarks such as this one he posted during a discussion of a black suspect and white victim:
“Get the f*cking lynching ropes out. I’m tired of this bullshit.”
Yeah, what a great idea open carry is.
This article was originally published by the same author at LiberalAmerica.org.