If you love guns, and you support our Second Amendment rights, you should probably do what you can to make sure gun owners are responsible and appear that way. That doesn’t consist of protesting gun regulation measures by marching through a town with a crowd of armed people; in fact, it’s hard to think of a way to make yourself look less responsible and more polarizing. And yet, that’s exactly what was going to happen until a small Colorado town canceled their July 4th parade over it.

As reported by Think Progress, not everyone in the town is supportive of the protesters:

The Custer County Chamber of Commerce, the event’s sponsor, cancelled the parade after fearful citizens circulated a petition to stop the club. Donna Hood, president of the chamber, abstained from the vote to cancel the parade but told the Denver Post that the controversy has “polarized this community in a week.”

No matter your opinion on gun control/regulation, deciding to frighten your opposition with a show of force defies logic. That’s not exactly the best way to make your case.

The group that wants to sponsor the gun-carrying event is, somewhat unsurprisingly, the Tea Party-affiliated Southern Colorado Patriots Club. As the Denver Post reports, however, the event has official endorsement in the form of county sheriffs:

[Custer County’s Fred Jobe] said he and several other county sheriffs who filed the lawsuit will lead the group. Custer County deputies will flank it. Club marshals will check to make sure any guns carried in the parade are unloaded, with the safety on, Jobe said. “No matter what your opinions are, it’s my job to make everybody feel safe,” Jobe said. “This is one way I hope to alleviate their fears, to have people right there with (the Patriot Club).” But some citizens say they could never feel safe with as many as 300 armed people expected to march.

The town of Westcliffe has about 500 people, and combined with its sister town of Silver Cliff, forms a quarter of the 4,000 person population in Custer County.