ext_99734 ([identity profile] 3fgburner.livejournal.com) wrote in [community profile] talkpolitics2010-04-20 12:32 pm
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Second Amendment March

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 [livejournal.com profile] 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.
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[identity profile] htpcl.livejournal.com 2010-04-20 04:50 pm (UTC)(link)
Your point escapes me.

[identity profile] 3fgburner.livejournal.com 2010-04-20 04:57 pm (UTC)(link)
My point is that this was NOT a front for some "teabaggers". It was a legitimate, grass-roots gathering of gun rights advocates.

[identity profile] 3fgburner.livejournal.com 2010-04-20 05:10 pm (UTC)(link)
And I'm looking forward to DC getting two sets of civil rights for the price of one bill :-D. And, watching anti-gun people's heads explode in frustration, as we make more progress on gun rights.

[identity profile] xforge.livejournal.com 2010-04-20 05:24 pm (UTC)(link)
What rights have been abridged and what rights are being threatened currently? Barring the ruling in DC which, wasn't that repealed already, exactly what threats are there in the US to the current status quo? What elected official anywhere has said even the first thing about anything having anything to do with gun rights?

[identity profile] 3fgburner.livejournal.com 2010-04-20 05:53 pm (UTC)(link)
In DC, they lack voting rights. The DC city council also replaced their total ban with regulations so onerous that they might as well be a total ban. $800-plus over and above the cost of a gun itself, is not a reasonable requirement to own a gun.

[identity profile] xforge.livejournal.com 2010-04-20 05:59 pm (UTC)(link)
Honestly I agree, that's ridiculous and usury. I dunno if I'd call it a threat to the 2nd Amendment however.
qnetter: (Default)

[personal profile] qnetter 2010-04-20 06:30 pm (UTC)(link)
It can't be usury because it's not interest on a loan.

[identity profile] 3fgburner.livejournal.com 2010-04-20 06:32 pm (UTC)(link)
You're right, "usury" isn't the right word. "Extortion" comes to mind, though.

[identity profile] xforge.livejournal.com 2010-04-20 06:40 pm (UTC)(link)
Ha, knew I shouldn'a used that word.
(deleted comment)

[identity profile] xforge.livejournal.com 2010-04-20 09:56 pm (UTC)(link)
Indubitably. Or something.

[identity profile] htpcl.livejournal.com 2010-04-20 05:27 pm (UTC)(link)
And my point is that, had you written this in your OP, I'd have spared you my silly questions.

[identity profile] 3fgburner.livejournal.com 2010-04-20 05:32 pm (UTC)(link)
I'm always glad to answer silly questions, especially when they point out stuff I should've put in the OP.
qnetter: (Default)

[personal profile] qnetter 2010-04-20 06:31 pm (UTC)(link)
"Progress"?! That's a new one.

Please let me know where you and your guns will be, so I can be somewhere else I don't have to feel quite as endangered.

[identity profile] gunslnger.livejournal.com 2010-04-20 06:47 pm (UTC)(link)
There's probably no guns in Antarctica, you could go there...

[identity profile] 3fgburner.livejournal.com 2010-04-20 06:47 pm (UTC)(link)
We're on opposite coasts. You do realize, don't you, that your home state was one of the first 5 or 6 to adopt right-to-carry, aka shall-issue, permits? Also, your state has about 240,000 concealed-weapon permit holders at the moment. That's pretty close to the quarter-million we have in Virginia. Population-wise, you've got about 6.66 million, vs our 7.88 million. Doing the math, .240/6.66 is about 3.6% of your population, vs about 3.2 of our population, carrying.

If you're worried about running into gun carriers, it's a bit more likely in your home state than mine.

On the Brady Campaign's scorecard for gun laws, both WA and VA have a 17 out of 100. California has a 79. Utah has a zero.
qnetter: (Default)

[personal profile] qnetter 2010-04-20 06:51 pm (UTC)(link)
If you're worried about running into gun carriers, it's a bit more likely in your home state than mine.
Not in the civilized portion -- just in the Idaho Western Extension. Luckily, we are no longer under Eastern Washington Rethuglican control.
Edited 2010-04-20 18:52 (UTC)

[identity profile] the-rukh.livejournal.com 2010-04-20 05:46 pm (UTC)(link)
False sense of persecution over a wedge issue: check. If it walks like a duck.
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