Don't you know you're supposed to bow?

Someone needs to teach the public some manners according to the NY Times:

We are all familiar with the right to bear arms and the noisome extremes indulged by its zealots. But is there no sense of simple respect due the nation’s elected leader when he ventures forth among the citizenry?

How is bringing a gun a sign of disrespect? Perhaps they meant to say:

We are all familiar with the right to question the government at town halls and the noisome extremes indulged by its zealots. But is there no sense of simple respect due to the nation's leader when he ventures forth among the citizenry?

The NY Times problem is that they see every gun owning American as a time bomb ready to explode. In their distorted view, owning a gun is an implicit threat to your fellow man and it follows that guns at Obama's town halls are a threat on his life. Of course nothing happened... but it could have:

That is hardly reassuring, especially this summer when so many protestors seem to consider primal rage a reasoned political statement.
...
When Mr. Obama held a town hall meeting in Portsmouth on Aug. 11, gun-packing protestors were also there. As the television cameras zoomed in, one man preened as if in the O.K. Corral, his holstered gun strapped proudly to his thigh. What’s next? Citizens strolling in helmets and camouflage flak jackets?

Of course, gun toting zealots must be the protestors, no reasonable person would own a gun. And isn't it clear they were looking for a shootout, just like at the O.K. Corral. Yeah, that's a fair characterization of law abiding citizens.