‘Was his rifle threatening to do something bad?’
that’s why his gesture amounts to no more than virtue signalling, no matter what he thinks he is accomplishing...
if he didn’t intend to go out and shoot people in a populated space, then his weapon is no more dangerous than a loofah sponge...he’d have made more of a statement by hanging on to the gun and putting it to its intended use, whatever that is for him...
"Did somebody say, 'Loofah'?"
Actually if you look at statistics on bath tub and shower accidents a loofah sponge may be more dangerous than a law abiding AR. more young children drown in swimming pools each year than guns and there is no cry to ban privately owned backyard swimming pools.