Actually, he was expressing his left-wing hatred of the right. Exercising Second Amendment rights entails protecting one's self.  In this case this left-wing, violent extremist drove from Illinois specifically to kill as many Republican members of Congress as he could.  Given the wholehearted acceptance of violent thought and actions against those on the right expressed daily in the media, and even on these ADN pages, this is not a particularly surprising event, merely the culmination of what those on the left have been demanding since November.