On November 9, 2013, a group of heavily armed Open Carry Texas (OCT) protesters surrounded a Blue Mesa Grill in Arlington, Texas while brandishing shotguns and military-style rifles. Inside the restaurant, a member of the group Moms Demand Gun Sense for America (MDA) was peacefully convening a lunch meeting with three other women to discuss gun policy. They were taken totally by surprise. An OCT member had feigned interest in joining MDA to learn the location of the meeting.

OCT claimed this wasn’t an act of intimidation. “We were just out there peacefully assembling,” said OCT leader Kory Watkins.

The rest of the civilized world seemed to disagree. “I was terrified,” said the MDA activist who organized the meeting. “They didn’t want to talk. They wanted to display force … They’re walking around with killing machines strapped to their backs in a suburban area.” She is remaining anonymous out of concern for her safety.

Columnist Rick Ungar summed up the demonstration the following way in Forbes:  “Does anyone think the Founders would approve of a group of 40 armed citizens making their point by terrifying their unarmed neighbors practicing their own right to pursue their point of view? … To defend such an action in unworthy of any true defender of the 2nd Amendment. But defend it many will. Indeed, one commenter to this article wrote, ‘They deserve to be terrified. That’s what happens when you form a group to take away the freedoms of another group of people.‘ … Any gun rights advocate unwilling to call out this behavior can no longer legitimately suggest that their primary interest is the defense of the Constitution.”

MDA founder Shannon Watts confirmed that terror is a common implement in pro-gun activists’ toolbox. Appearing on “The Ed Show” on MSNBC on November 11, Watts said, “As a member of this organization, I get death threats and threats of sexual violence against myself and my daughters on a daily basis. This is an underbelly of America that all citizens should understand is out there, and that they do not want any kind of regulation of the Second Amendment whatsoever.”

Aggressive behavior seems to come naturally to OCT activists. In recent protests, heavily armed members of the group have directly confronted Texas state troopers and police officers and called them the following to their faces: “pigs,” “motherfuckers,” “scumbags,” “pieces of shit,” “maggot motherfuckers,” “traitors,” “worthless wastes of life,” “bitches,” “jokes” and “retards.” Texas law enforcement officers have exercised incredible restraint in the face of this abuse and conducted themselves in a way that totally belies the protesters’ hyperbolic claims of “tyranny.” Still, watching the videos of these protests is terrifying. Just one individual exercising a moment of terrible judgment is all it would take to turn one of these circuses into an unspeakable tragedy.

There is also abundant evidence online to suggest that OCT’s November 9th demonstration at Blue Mesa Grill was far from “peaceful.” On Facebook, pro-gun activists have been nothing short of eager to tell MDA the true motive behind the event.

In a thread at the “Hypocrisy and Stupidity of Gun Control Advocates” Facebook page commenting on Shannon Watt’s appearance on “The Ed Show,” they made their threats of violence explicit.

“Forgive my crudeness, but I’m just compelled to stick my dick in her mouth,” said pro-gun activist Ryan Mackin of Appleton, Wisconsin.

“Come tell me to my face that I compare to the Taliban bitch and maybe I’ll treat you like they treat there women!!” added pro-gunner John Stevens of Eugene, Oregon.

Rob Martin of Gladewater, Texas was even more blunt. “Psh. I want her publicly hanged,” he said.

When Don Fetzer of Marienville, Pennsylvania commented, “I think she needs laid !” pro-gunner Jake Frank responded with “She needs to get laid in a grave if anything.”

“I guess she needs laid…” said Max Paar of Alexandria, Indiana. “I don’t think my gun would like that oil…”

Responding to Shannon’s suggestion that the Second Amendment was not intended to allow intimidation of those exercising their right to assemble, pro-gun activist Fabio Constantini of West Haven, Connecticut warned, “She is lucky they are not using the second for what it was intended to do… Go spend time with your kids lady…”

Posting on the Moms Demand Action Facebook page, pro-gunner Anthony Fennell of Modesto, California told them, “Anywhere that moms demand action meets needs to be met with as large a caliber number of weapons as is legally possible simply displayed with a banner that says ‘My other gun is a fully auto 50 cal’. be real. nobody wants war, but you guys are near to forcing it. You are never taking our guns without massive blood shed across the country. In the event that any law is passed that would permanently stop us from fighting back… 1776 will happen again. I am waiting. ready and willing to fight.”

Pro-gun activist David J. Hall of Santa Fe, Texas was equally direct in a message to MDA’s Texas chapter. “Each and every one of you can [get the fuck out] of my state,” he told them. “you are not a grassroots movement we real Texans do not want you here nor messing with our GOD GIVEN RIGHTS. when open carry is legal what will you do then? move now before you people start a real and no joke war.”

Michael Finney of Seffner, Florida put it this way to MDA: “All you retarded mother fuckers come and TRY to take my firearms. There WILL be a lot more shootings,I PROMISE!If you think taking away law abiding citizens firearms will keep you safer ,you truly are fucking retarded!”

“Seriously fuck y’all anyone that bullies is y’all fucking ass and anyone that needs sense if y’all’s fucking ass the owner of this moms demand sucking dick for sense in America need to be slapped the fuck out of them,” threatened pro-gun activist Shawn Fisher of Arlington, Texas.

Then there was pro-gun activist Allan Whitaker of Russellville, Arkansas, who scared the daylights out of his PR-minded colleagues by being so honest on the “Hypocrisy and Stupidity of Gun Control Advocates” Facebook page. “I hope they are intimidated,” he said of MDA. “They are not talking about destroying our right to eat cookies. We have the means to end the debate with force. It is only because we respect the constitution, 1st amendment, and human life that we have allowed the debate to happen at all.”

As Rick Ungar pointed out, such insurrectionist rhetoric has nothing to do with defense of the Constitution. To the contrary, the threat of political violence is a direct attack on the Constitution and the democratic institutions that underpin our system of government. Our Founders drafted and ratified the document to obviate the need for political violence, and to guarantee that future generations would be able to peacefully assemble and advocate for policies that they deemed necessary to further “Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.”

When Kory Watkins and his OCT colleagues take to the streets with weapons to intimidate those who disagree with them on matters of policy, they are not demonstrating that they cherish the Constitution. They are demonstrating that they have no faith in the document whatsoever. Perhaps they should have recalled Abraham Lincoln’s famous rejoinder before initiating their armed demonstration against MDA:  “Among free men, there can be no successful appeal from the ballot to the bullet; and…they who take such appeal are sure to lose their case, and pay the cost.”