Francis Wilkinson, Columnist

Texas Gun Extremists Think Their Behavior Is Nuts

At a gun-rights rally in San Antonio, Texas, activists argued semi-automatics were just like cell phones.Â

October 21, 2013 at 4:41 PM UTC

Francis Wilkinson is a Bloomberg Opinion columnist covering US politics and policy. Previously, he was executive editor for the Week and a writer for Rolling Stone.

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"A rifle on our back is part of our everyday life, just like a cellphone is part of our everyday life," Angela L. Pena told a reporter for the New York Times. Pena made the comment last weekend at a gun-rights rally in San Antonio, where enthusiasts openly carried rifles, including semi-automatic rifles, in order to assert their right to openly carry rifles, including semi-automatic rifles.

There are countries where carrying such weapons is "just like" carrying a cellphone, but the U.S. is not one of them. (Syria comes to mind.) In the U.S., someone walking down an urban street -- San Antonio is the nation's seventh largest city -- with a cellphone goes unnoticed. Someone walking down the street with an AR-15 occasions public panic and a SWAT team.