My, my, isn't this special? The St. Louis tea bagger Dana Loesch has now made her way from Fox News to CNN. John Roberts asks if the tone of the rhetoric at the town halls is getting dangerous. Ron Reagan Jr. replies that it has, and points out that a gun was dropped out of one of the participant's pockets at an Arizona town hall meeting. Dana Loesch defends it by saying that maybe they have a concealed-carry license. Oh...I see Dana. That license makes what happened alright in your right wing nutter world.

Would you still be defending that person being that irresponsible if that was a loaded gun, and it went off when they dropped it?

I've got a friend who is my accountant, and who has a conceal/carry license. When getting my taxes done a little while back she went on endlessly about all the classes and hoops she had to jump through with learning about gun safety to get her license. She was actually pretty proud of how she did and how she already knew how to safely handle a gun, since all of her family are hunters and they taught her from a young age a lot of the things she was required to know in those classes.

I have not read up on what the laws are to be allowed to retain a license to carry a concealed weapon since I have no desire to do so myself. If there is not something written into any states' laws already that says if you drop a loaded gun in a crowd of people and they can prove you did it, and you don't lose your right to carry a concealed weapon, then there's something wrong with our concealed/carry laws.

Anyone who has been through the program you have to go through to get that license would know better than to allow a gun to be unsecured in a manner where it's allowed to just fall out of wherever you're holding it and hit the ground. Ms. Loesch's argument that maybe this person had a permit looks ridiculous to me for that reason alone. The opposite is true of responsible gun owners who go through the safety program for that license, and the likelihood of someone who had the license allowing something that irresponsible to happen.

Of course Loesch has no idea whether they had a license or not. She just threw that out there from the land of her butt to defend them bringing a gun there in the first place. And the big, thuggish union guys at the St. Louis meeting she went to scared her, so maybe she would have been better off having a gun there herself as well. Just who would you have shot Dana had you had that gun you're saying would have protected you? Somehow you managed to make it out of there alive and onto our TV screens without pulling a gun on anyone yourself. Ron Reagan thankfully added a bit of sanity to this segment when he wasn't being talked over.

Full transcript below the fold.

ROBERTS: He wants everyone to calm down just a little bit. But, as you have been seeing tonight and all last week, at the moment, it is a very potent mix out there.

Here to talk strategy from the left and the right, Ron Reagan of Air America and Dana -- Dana Loesch, also a radio show host, and affiliated with the Saint Louis Tea Party Coalition.

Dana, let's start with you.

Why so much anger, mistrust and misinformation out there? And we wonder, has this whole thing devolved to the point where it is not only unproductive, but, frankly, it could be potentially dangerous?

DANA LOESCH, RADIO TALK SHOW HOST: I don't think it could be dangerous.

I think Congress is responsible for setting the tone. And what we have seen is that Congress hasn't really allowed for discourse of one of the most important pieces of legislation in American history. And I think that is what people are reacting to.

You know, they're -- they are tired of calling their legislator and leaving a message with an aide. They're tired of going to a Web site and filling out a form e-mail. So, we are seeing at these town halls are people who -- they are flocking there because they have their elected official's ear, and they want to express their concerns about the health care legislation.

ROBERTS: So -- so, Ron, what about this argument, then, that these -- these people, they're not organized, it's a grassroots movement, these are -- these are merely Americans who want to get involved in the process, and they're deeply concerned about health care because it affects each and every one of us so much?

RON REAGAN, RADIO TALK SHOW HOST: Well, it's fine to get involved, and -- and it is good to show up at a town hall meeting and -- and have a conversation. But you have to have the conversation and you have to have the discussion.

And many of these people -- not all, I'm sure, but many of these people are clearly showing up to shut the conversation down. And they are being inspired by -- by some members of Congress who are floating this rumor, as -- as certain talk show hosts do, that, you know, Obama is all -- is all about killing the elderly, and, you know, there are these death panels, as Sarah Palin put it on her Facebook page.

(LAUGHTER)

REAGAN: And I -- I don't know that it's going to get dangerous out there. I tend to think that a lot of these might calm down a little because they realize this is not good press for them.

LOESCH: Well, yes.

REAGAN: But let me just add that, in Arizona today, a gun dropped out of one of these people's pockets while they were hooting and hollering at one of these town hall meetings.

LOESCH: Maybe they had a concealed-carry license.

ROBERTS: Yes.

(CROSSTALK)

REAGAN: Well, maybe they did, but, you know, you have got to wonder whether you really need to be packing heat to go to a town hall meeting.

LOESCH: Well, you know what? I tell you here, at Russ Carnahan's town hall meeting, as a -- as a young woman looking back at a bunch of really big guys in SEIU shirts who were glaring at me, I was a little bit afraid, I have to tell you. And that's stuff that we're facing.

REAGAN: Really -- really thinking you were going to be coming to harm, Dana?

LOESCH: Well, I...

(CROSSTALK)

REAGAN: I don't think so.

(CROSSTALK)

LOESCH: ... was beaten down in the parking lot afterwards, so, you know?

REAGAN: Well, you know, it is only a matter of time before somebody pulls out a gun and does something with it.

(CROSSTALK)

ROBERTS: Well, I don't know.

(CROSSTALK)

LOESCH: Yes, but the...

ROBERTS: Yes, it could be that this person did have a concealed- carry license.

(CROSSTALK)

REAGAN: I'm not arguing with you that they didn't have the concealed-carry license.

(CROSSTALK)

LOESCH: You can't immediately assign a negative -- you can't immediately assign...

(CROSSTALK)

REAGAN: But that's not the point.

(CROSSTALK)

LOESCH: ... negative simply because they -- they may have had a concealed-carry license.

But you know what? It is interesting that the guy didn't pick up his gun and start shooting everybody with it.

REAGAN: Well, let's hope not.