Aug. 18 (Bloomberg) -- Armed protesters asserting their right to bear arms, including a man with a rifle slung over his shoulder, gathered yesterday near a Phoenix convention hall where President Barack Obama spoke, a police spokesman said.

The protesters were taking advantage of an Arizona law that allows people to carry unconcealed guns, Phoenix Police Department spokesman Andy Hill said. Police made no arrests.

“Plainclothes police officers continually monitored the situation and no threats, either physical or verbal, were made,” Hill said in an e-mail.

The incident marked the third occasion in a week when guns have been linked to an Obama event. On Aug. 11, police arrested a man for having a loaded, unlicensed gun in his car near a New Hampshire school where Obama later held a health-care forum, USA Today reported. In a separate incident, another man outside that event displayed a gun in a holster on his leg, the paper said.

New Hampshire law allows people to carry unconcealed guns and the protester wasn’t arrested, said U.S. Secret Service spokesman Malcolm Wiley.

The armed protesters weren’t a “cause for concern,” White House spokesman Robert Gibbs told reporters today.

“There are laws that govern firearms that are done state or locally,” he said. “Those laws don’t change when the president comes to your state or locality.”

‘Craziness’

Paul Helmke, president of the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence, a Washington-based gun-control group, said the trend alarms him.

Bringing guns to “something where the president is speaking is craziness,” Helmke said. By arming themselves, the protesters stifle debate through intimidation, give other people a chance to grab a gun and potentially cause mayhem and distract law enforcement from other threats, Helmke said.

A spokesman for the National Rifle Association, the Fairfax, Virginia-based gun-rights lobby group, didn’t immediately return a call seeking comment.

The incidents haven’t caused the Secret Service, which is charged with protecting the president, to boost security around Obama, Wiley said. The Phoenix protesters weren’t near the president and didn’t try to enter the event, he said.

“We didn’t change the security plan,” Wiley said.

Police Alerted

Hill said police in Phoenix heard before Obama’s speech to a Veterans of Foreign Wars convention that a group planned to carry weapons in their protest. Hill declined to name the group.

Gibbs said that security concerns regarding the president haven’t changed because of the protesters.

Wiley said he wasn’t aware of presidential events before the New Hampshire forum to which protesters brought guns.

The Southern Poverty Law Center, a Montgomery Alabama-based group that monitors hate groups, released a report last week that said membership in right-wing militias is increasing in part because some are concerned that Obama may pursue policies aimed at taking away their guns.

The president has said he believes the Constitution guarantees an individual’s right to bear arms but that regulations also may be imposed on weapon ownership.

To contact the reporter on this story: Jeff Bliss in Washington jbliss@bloomberg.net.

Last Updated: August 18, 2009 11:43 EDT