A group of tea partiers and Second Amendment activists in New Mexico decided to kick off the new decade with a show of arms at a demonstration protesting President Obama’s “socialist” policies, according to local media reports via Think Progress.
Over three hundred people attended the protest in Alamogordo in southern New Mexico, which was organized by the Otero Tea Party Patriots and a group called the Second Amendment Task Force.
The Alamogordo Daily News got a picture of one man with a rifle and a sign that says, “No To Obama Care / No To Congess (sic) Spending / No To Stimulus / Replace Comunist (sic) in DC”.
The AP reports that there were “plenty of handguns and rifles displayed … but no violence.”
The Daily News has lots of color from the event, including this description of an assault rifle-bearing husband and wife:
Orie Adcock and his wife, Juli, both of Roswell, came with identical scoped AR-15s slung over their shoulder.“I heard about it through the grapevine and decided to come over to see what it’s all about,” Orie said. “We also wanted to express our First Amendment rights, as well as our Second Amendment rights.”
Then Orie started to explain how his AR-15 functions.
“It’s much like the ones that kids start out hunting rabbits and quail with,” he said. “According to the liberals, it’s one of those evil black rifles. I don’t discriminate. Black rifles are just fine with me.”
Here’s a video report on the event via the New Mexico Independent:
Late Update: And here’s a second video from the event.