The placard read "it is time to water the tree of liberty!" - but it was not a water pistol strapped to the thigh of the protester waiting for Barack Obama, but a real gun.
Do you know how many -- you said that it was arealgun battle, but my understanding is of the 22 or so people in the room, 17 or so of them were noncombatants.
If you look at the world that way, gun control must seem a pointless diversion from the real problem: not guns, but one particular group of gun owners.