NY Times gives distorted view of Arizona Congresswoman's event

Gail Collins in the NY Times describes an event in Arizona this way:

Also escorted away but not arrested: an armed man at a loud and rancorous town meeting hosted by Representative Steve Cohen of Memphis. Both the armpit guy and the Memphis guy had the required permit to carry a concealed weapon. Kostric did not even have to have a permit since his gun was not concealed, which in New Hampshire makes it completely O.K. This is under the theory that as long as you know that the strange-looking guy waving the big protest sign is packing heat, you can take steps to protect yourself, perhaps such as purchasing a bulletproof vest from a nearby street vendor.

One could go into a lot more detail, but here is the way the Democratic Arizona Congresswoman described the event:

"A lot of people carry firearms here. My job is to listen to my constituents and to create environments or create events where people can have civil discussion," Giffords said. "I'm concerned that with tempers flaring that you may have a problem that would escalate. But in our situation, we had a couple of local law-enforcement folks show up and they were fine. Some people yelled and some people screamed and some people had negative signs and that sort of thing, but at no point did I ever feel in danger and at no point did I ever feel there was a problem."