Second Amendment March

[3fgburner.livejournal.com]

Greetings, all -- I was at the March, yesterday. That is, I was at the real one on the Mall, not the spinoff across the river.  A week or two ago, in a discussion of Tea Partiers, I had a brief dialogue with squidb0i  about the 2A March. He said that in the absence of credible threats to gun rights, the 2A March was simply a front for "teabaggers".

With that in mind, I kept a conscious eye out for TEA Party type signs, pamphlets, handouts, etc.  Attendance was in the high hundreds, maybe over a thousand. I wandered around and saw most of the crowd at one time or another. There were 2-3, maybe 4 signs that could be interpreted as TEA Party related.  There was one sign for the John Birch Society, back in the back. There was one religious nutjob, and a couple of Third Way whackos. That's it, out of a LOT of people. Everybody else there was attending to promote gun rights.  

There was a certain amount of mockery directed at outfits like the SPLC, mostly by people like Nicky Stallard of the Pink Pistols, and Kenn Blanchard aka Black Man With A Gun(tm).  The SPLC had apparently labeled a number of the organizations there as "hate groups", including Oathkeepers.  Nicky pointed out that it was pretty stupid to call 2A advocates racists or homophobes, considering that she and Kenn were speaking.  All in all, a good time was had by those attending, and I got to see and meet some of the icons of the gun rights movement.  I even got to give Dick Heller one of my empty-holster flags: an L-shaped piece of red posterboard, with a sticker showing the DC flag and "Disarmament Without Protection". He was amused.

Comments

[mahnmut.livejournal.com]

Today I woke up at 7:45. I stretched in bed for 15 minutes (I usually stretch for 20 but today I felt fresher). Then I stood up and washed my teeth. My wife was still opening her left eye (or was it the right?) when I was ready with the coffee and breakfast. I brought it to her and she said "Thanks!" Then I watched some news on the TV while filling out the SuDoKu in the newspaper. And then I briefly saw the Tea Party rally on the TV. I thought to myself: "I'm going to switch to another program. I've watched this already. Besides, I'm sure there'll be at least one guy by the end of the day to spread the word about the super significant 'news' about the rally on LJ, turning TP into a hybrid between a newsreel and a personal blog."

I'm going to spare you the details about my day. When I got back home (18:30) I put my jacket on the hanger, then went to have a bath. My wife had already got back too, and she was cooking the dinner. When I came out, we had dinner. Salmon with some salads and a little wine. It's good. I switched the TV on. I remembered that I had seen something about the Tea Party rally, so I switched to CNN again (it's the only US program we're getting here). They did mention something about the rally. So I remembered that I had made a bet with myself about whether some guy would turn the forum into a hybrid between a newsreel and his personal diary. I checked the forum. And - BAM! - here it was! I saw this post.

Well done!

[3fgburner.livejournal.com]

Cute. Trust me, once I get the pics uploaded, the entry on my blog will be considerably longer.

[mahnmut.livejournal.com]

We're doomed...

[htpcl.livejournal.com]

Hehehe :)

Did you win the bet with yourself?

[mahnmut.livejournal.com]

I always win those.

[htpcl.livejournal.com]

Your point escapes me.

[3fgburner.livejournal.com]

My point is that this was NOT a front for some "teabaggers". It was a legitimate, grass-roots gathering of gun rights advocates.

[mcpreacher.livejournal.com]

it is possible to have racist beliefs and/or engage in covertly racist behavior while still having black friends fyi

[the-rukh.livejournal.com]

I'm going to have an anti-lizardmen government takeover protest. I think it'll do a lot of good.

[fizzyland.livejournal.com]

Wasn't yesterday the anniversary of Waco/Muriah Federal Building bombing?

[3fgburner.livejournal.com]

More importantly, it was the 235th anniversary of the start of the War of Independence. On April 19, 1775, American volunteers met and repelled an attack by British Regulars. W's attempt to hijack the name notwithstanding, April 19th is Patriots' Day.

Also, on April 19th, 1943, the Nazis attempted to assault the Warsaw Ghetto, and got their asses kicked.

[sgiffy.livejournal.com]

While I have a gun and am reasonably supportive of gun rights, the paranoia from "2A Advocates" borders on the silly. I have heard next to nothing from anyone aside from some random members of congress about anything approaching a massive or even minor curtailment of gun rights. Even somewhat reasonable restrictions, like on assault weapons, or requirements for licensing/training/registration have fallen by the way side.

Might as well have a rally about third amendment rights.

[3fgburner.livejournal.com]

Restrictions on so-called "assault weapons" aren't reasonable. You're talking about the equivalent of taking two identical cars, and banning one for having chrome wheels and fuzzy dice on the rearview mirror.

Requiring licensing, training, or registration simply to own a firearm isn't reasonable either.

[eracerhead.livejournal.com]

Only 1,000 people? That isn't a protest, in DC that's nothing more than a yard sale.

[3fgburner.livejournal.com]

Found a news report that said it peaked at 2,000. Might've been about right.

[dwer.livejournal.com]

in other news, my tiger repellent continues to work well.

Tiger repellent

[telemann.livejournal.com]

Mrs. Woods would approve of any Tiger repellent ;)

[allhatnocattle.livejournal.com]

In other news, a private members bill by Tory backbencher Candice Hoeppner to essentially scrap and disembowel Canada's gun registry is about to see 3rd reading and a final vote sometime in early May.

Until now it looked like this bill was about to pass. Not solely because the gun registry is stupid and doesn't do what it was supposed to do, but because it has been enormously expensive.

However, pressured by his urban supporters Liberal leader Michael Ignatieff is not going to allow his caucus a free vote on this matter. His party will use the whip to vote down this legislation and keep the multi-billion dollar gun registry program.

Cops freely admit that when responding to an emergency, they do not stop to see if a firearm is licensed to the address. Because they err on the side of caution, they respond as if an illegal unlicensed weapon may be present, something that the gun registry has still failed to account for.

[malasadas.livejournal.com]

For the sake of argument, I'm fine stipulating to your observation that there was no tea partying going on at your demonstration.

That said, I have to reiterate some of the spirit of squidb0i's response by asking what issue, exactly, do Second Amendment advocates see at the FEDERAL level that warrants demonstration? Despite the run on ammunition sparked by what can only objectively be called completely unfounded fears of coming gun restrictions, the Obama administration has not remotely endeared itself to the gun control community (http://www.bradycampaign.org/media/press/view/1214/), and seems entirely content to leave the question entirely up to the courts, state and municipalities to sort out.

Simply put, your fight isn't with the federal governmet at this point -- it's entirely with states and cities.

Why were you folk gathered in Washington?

[3fgburner.livejournal.com]

To some extent, it was to remind the Feds that they'd better behave themselves. Let's also remember that Obama hasn't exactly been pro-gun, either. He's appointed a rabidly anti-gun Supreme Court Justice, and his Cabinet is full of anti-gun-rights people. In addition, there's a lot of anti-gun people on the other end (of the northwest part) of Pennsylvania Avenue. Some of those Congresscritters sit fairly high up on some committees. Granted, Obama is smart enough not to blow political capital on gun control, at the moment. The most important thing to remember is he hasn't done anything, YET.

At the rally, a lot of the speakers actually did make the point that we needed to be active and vigilant, at the local and state level. We're making progress (outside the PRK), but every year we have to fight off some bad stuff in the state legislature.

There were also 2A March rallies all over the country, in state capitals. The Richmond one was a week ago. At that one, of course, there wasn't any of this "leave your guns at home" nonsense.

[dreadfulpenny81.livejournal.com]

I'm curious to know what the SPLC's criteria is for listing certain groups as "hate groups". There's obvious ones like the KKK or Westboro Baptist Church, but the Oathkeepers?

[3fgburner.livejournal.com]

Near as I can tell, it's "Not left-wing". Incidentally, the WBC is apparently so nasty that the KKK denounced them as a hate group.

[paft.livejournal.com]

I can't find the Oathkeepers listed as a hate group on the SPLC website. I do know the Southern Poverty Law Center has expressed concern about the organization, and with good reason.

[paft.livejournal.com]

The SPLC had apparently labeled a number of the organizations there as "hate groups", including Oathkeepers.

Where and when did the SPLC do this?

[dreadfulpenny81.livejournal.com]

Last year:

http://www.splcenter.org/blog/2009/10/21/oath-keepers-say-theyre-on-patrol-in-iraq/

Also, Newsweek pegged Oathkeepers as a hate group in their latest clusterfuck article:

http://www.newsweek.com/id/236202