NPR sez

On the radio yesterday the NPR talking head said the cops in Charlottesville were intimidated and scared to weigh in because a whole bunch of people on both sides looked like dangerous thugs and were open carrying AUTOMATIC weapons. 

No.

This tells us two things.  One, NPR people are morons on this stuff and don't know the difference between a Barrett and a Blunderbus.  And, TWO, gunnies are particular law abiding for some reason.  Down to the core.  Even if there is a shooting by an open carrier at some future rally-riot the fact there none at this one then despite folks wailing away at each other with baseball bats shows an incredible level of restraint baked into people that carry.  That is something.  Amazing.  Considering one side has black masks over the faces.  Masks are a total bad guy thing.  Gets my hackles up.  I avoid those types because I don't want to get on the news my ownself.   

That said, I worry if/when shots are fired at one of these.  That is not gonna help us.  Us normals folks. 

Back to automatic weapons.  What is it, maybe 2 people in a thousand have a brrrrrp gun?  So certainly a machine gun owner or two were present at that scrum.  But if you are that type of person that goes to a rally, and carry, I think you automatically (heh!) leave your machine gun at home.  Why?  YOU COULD LOSE IT!  You know how much them things cost?  Even the the cheap ones.  The cops would have gotten a wild hair and just detained everybody before that thing even kicked off.  Then bye bye expensive noise-fun.  Even if you are released in half an hour with no charges, good luck getting it back, ever.  That's a gun that cost more than cars.  Nice cars.  You don't bring your purty BBQ gun to a crowded political rally either.   You never know what might happen.