Chicago AIMM sitrep...

S

simonov jr

New member
I was there with my wife to counter the anti's by lake Michigan. There were about 70 of us, facing a mob of probably 40,000 people. I went to "show up" but wound up taking a bullhorn and addressing the crowd all afternoon. The reason? There weren't enough pro-gun people to keep the demonstration going otherwise. Why can we fill a gun show to capacity for three days straight but can't show up for part of an afternoon when it REALLY counts? Probably 10 of us had driven up from various parts of Indiana, 3 hrs plus a hotel room in my case, while the rest were from IL or parts of the midwest. I brought my sign, and my wife was the only person of color there (indonesian). Her sign said, "It's the CRIMINALS, stupid!!!".My sign said "Govt out of my dresser drawer" on the front, and "REPORT FAIR!!!" on the back. Every time media "interviewed" someone, I stood behind em with the sign. I also took the bullhorn and while addressing the crowd, talked about the biased media. I walked over to an NBC cameraman/reporter doing an interview, and said on mike, "Their network has an editorial policy on this issue, and its NOT on our side. Do you think they can report this objectively?". And since I am a "yuppy", I said that they wouldn't show people like me, but would wait for "Grizzly Adams" to show up so they could show the public what gun owners were "really like". They looked a bit like deer in the headlights. We had to stay in a "cage" behind bicycle racks, while police held the peaceful million mom-ers back. I blared out the list of gun-restictive cities and that they (including Chicago, where handguns are banned) are "all crime, all the time", while saying funny how Indiana had low gun laws and low crime, VA, VT, etc. This was a shoestring operation, with the small Libertarian party of chicago leading. Mainly younger women in pink shirts with bullhorns, very plucky. A cop also addressed the crowd for our side. A few of our people gave nazi salutes or said some harsh things to the anti's. I politely reminded them that if the media could get them doing that on film, they would go home and have a beer because they had all the ammo they needed to slander us. I also asked a newslady from CBS if she was impartial. She said "of course, I'm just doing my job". I said, "do you have a personal opinion on this issue?". She said, "I would never keep a gun in my house, if that's what you mean". A lady next to me said, "You didn't answer his question". The news lady said, "Why do YOU PEOPLE always interrupt me"? I said "WHO'S 'YOU PEOPLE'? She had been caught, for she would never say that at an NAACP rally. It seems okay to do it to us though. She harumphed and said "I meant you three people here in front of me". I'm NOT making this up! That's not biased, is it? One guy grabbed the bullhorn of one of our leader lady's, and a cop made him apoligize. The guy's wife also was aggressive, and squirted her with her water bottle. I got into it with her at the cage barrier, and I said sarcastically, "Marching for "non-violence", are you? Think Gandi would be really proud of you". She wigged, thought she would swing at me but didn't. I also went down the list of countries with gun control, saying "Cambodia enjoyed trigger locks, Rwanda had a waiting period, Kosovo had registration...". Also went into "Tienanmen isn't famous for the carry-out, and Nazi Germany wasn't famous for the sauerbratten". One of the better lines was, "Guns don't kill children, JANET RENO kills children". All in all, it was a BLAST, a real high. For those of you who "couldn't" go, you missed out on a rewarding and irreplaceable chance to stick up for your rights. As for the misguided moms I faced out there today, I don't agree with their opinions. They are being manipulated and trying to undermine my freedom. BUT, I can't be too harsh on them. At least they had enough conviction to show up.
 
Well done, sir. And shame on the rest of us.

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Either you believe in the Second Amendment or you don't.
Stick it to 'em! RKBA!
 
I tried to make it out there but would have never made it in time. Instead I headed over to a local conservatory where Moms were being given free flowers so there were TONS of people there. I handed out MothersArms flyers with my daughter for about 2 hours. Many people took them but some people threw it back at me or started ranting. One old lady starting yelling at me saying I am the minority LOL! My daughter was with me so I politely said "Mam, this is my daughter and I will do anything to protect her, can you argue with that?" She just shook her head and wobbled away.

I wanted to do something after seeing all the news reports of the MMM, so this is the best I could do for today.

FOX had pretty good coverage in WA, they gave the SAS more airtime than any other stations. MSNBC barely showed SAS and made them sound like they were pitaful or something. :rolleyes:

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RKBA forums
We are as one as we all are the same fighting for one cause -Metallica
 
NPR didn't do such a hot job either.

I'll paraphrase what I heard on "Only Lefist Things Considered" this afternoon:

(Remember, this isn't an exact quote, but it conveys the meaning of what was said) Across the country, a million moms rallied for gun control. In Washington, the moms held a large gathering on the Mall, while across the street a smaller group of a few thousand gun-rights supporters protested.

Who can spot the verbal sleight-of-hand in NPR's coverage?
 
simonov,

I didn't know that was you! I couldn't remember what you said your sign would say. I was standing behind you for some of it, and I think you did a fine job with that bullhorn. ;) (BTW, I was that Chinese guy in the green shirt and tie)

I think we did a pretty good job of showing what we think. It's too bad the venue was not a good place for a civilized conversation with the antis. Their brainwashing hats must have had fresh batteries because I don't think a single one of them took the time to consider the facts that we were telling them.

[This message has been edited by jcoyoung (edited May 14, 2000).]
 
Damn, well good to meet you. Thanks for the complement. My boss always says I'm an aggravating prick, guess this is a situation where it kind of helps. LOL. Thanks for showing up and being counted. BTW, I'm HOOKED. I loved every second of it, have to admit it was exhiliarating to confront the enemy so directly. 70 against 40,000, I'd say we had em right where we wanted 'em!
 
simonov, I was asking about TFL members, but nobody knew you were there! Saw you and your wife, and listened to your comments. Good job. I had a story to tell, but it didn't end with shooting, and I have a fear of public speaking that I have to get over. Sorry.

The _real_ issue here is where all the gun owners went to (no flames to the TFL gang; if you didn't make it, I'm sure it was because you absolutely couldn't). As you said, gun shows pack 'em in by the dozens but those same folk won't lift a finger to defend their rights. For more years than I can remember, I've been trying every tact with gun owners to get them involved, from trying to scare them to trying to shame them. Nothing seems to work, until a new restrictive law gets passed. Then they bitch for a while and drift back to complacency.

If you have any suggestions, please toss them out for discussion. We can't win when only one or two percent of all gun owners are doing anything.

Dick
 
hi you all that went to the demonstration...
i'd like to thank you all for your representation at the counter MMM march. the timing was off, so i couldn't make it :-( . anyway, i'm from the PRK, temporarily here in the similar republik of chicago.

in california, i was in the city of LA, and for the life of me, it seemed it was hard to motivate people to do much of anything. when i would hear of new legisation or proposals to limit firearms in LA or the state, i would print up notices with details, and try to distribute things to the local gun stores and ranges, but even within the chain gun stores, it seemed like no one seemed to try to make the effort to get the word out or spur people into action. many times when people hear about proposed actions, they may get upset about it, but that's as far as their actions went.

it seems that unifying all firearms owners is more difficult that it seems. for instance, reaction to the bills SB23 (the latest version of an "assault weopon" ban) and SB15 (an "unsafe firearm" ban that makes the sale of anything concealable and almost banned glocks, sigs, others without a manually activated safety). handgunners would be opposed to sb23, yet, i doubt many informed their representives about their opinion because ar's and such weren't their primary interest. similarly, hunters may not have voiced their opinions of sb23 or sb15, because they didn't affect them directly. this patchwork attack on firearms very effectively divides up support, so organized opposition never seems to materialize.

from what i hear now, LA had proposed a ban on reloading equipment, and now has an ammunition license proposal (yearly license that you have to pay for to be ALLOWED to purchase ammunition of any type) that looks like it is going to be implemented for the entire city. yet, i heard very little opposition occured for these proposals.
i don't know what it is going to take to form a united front against all this anti-gun mentality.

as far as awareness went in chicago, radio station WLS actually had ms. sailor on for several hours one night prior to the march, and she had lots of good pro, and only a few anti calls. but by far, a majority of the media was definately biased for the mmm so the mmm got all the media attention and very little was directed for the aimm march. i guess the mmm got a bigger turnout especially because of an oprah show plug...

anyway, thank you all again for your efforts...
 
You need to remember and remind others that being in the "minority" does not mean you are wrong.

Remember what the majority did to the Jews in Germany during WWII. Were the German people right because they were the majority?
 
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