Some are more equal than others - and, yet another abuse of the licensing process.
MCRGO and allies outnumber anti-gunners at Mackinac
Submitted on: September 5, 2000
Since the anti-gun "Million Mom March" announced that they would be walking the Mackinac Bridge for Labor Day to get media attention and demand more gun control, it was decided that Michigan's gun groups needed to be there as well. MCRGO and the Second Amendment Sisters (SAS) put together a pretty good turnout for the Labor Day Mackinac Bridge walk, despite what you may have read in the papers.
Between the two groups, we had about a hundred people there, either in our initial gang of walkers or in members who came over seperately. The Million Moms were there too, but most people were referring to them as the "Two Dozen Mom" marchers because there was really about that many there. And we watched them form up across the street from us before the march, and we watched them come across and gather on the south side. There's no disputing that we had them outnumbered.
But of course they got the press coverage. The next day's Lansing State Journal reported that there were over a thousand of them. That's totally ludicrous and an MCRGO staffer contacted the Journal's reporter to find out where they got that ridiculous figure. The reporter replied that Suzanne Skubick, one of the MMM organizers, phoned the paper and reported on the march, claiming to have counted that many marchers.
So when the MMM organizers couldn't attract the thousand moms that they'd promised to bring out, they simply made up a lie about their numbers and tricked several papers and news stations into spreading that lie to the public.
The Detroit Free Press at least reported accurately that the gun-control activists were only "a handful".
We had a good gathering at MCRGO organizer Kevin Volz's place before the walk. Rain notwithstanding on Sunday, we got some shooting in and had some gourmet wild game dishes prepared by Jim White of TN-USA fame, and State Rep. Scott Shackleton dropped by to socialize and snack for a while.
June Fellows, SAS's Michigan director, did a great job organizing her crowd and setting up a combined SAS/MCRGO area right at the south exit point from the bridge, and her and Pat passed out tons of literature for both groups and sold dozens of SAS and MCRGO T-shirts and hats. (To get these shirts or hats, contact Doug James at dougj@mcrgo.org or June at sas_michigan@yahoo.com )
MCRGO bumper stickers were everywhere and Kevin's house and yard were filled to capacity with pro-gunners from all over Michigan and even two from TEXAS who read about it on the website while travelling through Ohio and decided to come up.)
All-in-all, we had a lot of fun and got the word out to thousands of people. Next year, the rest of you need to be up there too so we can really make our presence felt. Plus you get to shoot.
Now one of the real downsides we experienced was having the Village of Mackinac City deny us a place to set up tables to distribute literature and sell our merchandise. June Fellows had tried a week ago and was told by someone in the village office that only 5 permits for space would be given out and that they had already been distributed. (After the walk we saw far more than five booths set up so that definitely wasn't correct.)
On our arrival Saturday, we were told that anyone could have space but that a permit was required from the village. We tried to get a permit but were told that the permits had to be approved by the village board and that approval would be impossible because they would not meet again until after Labor Day.
A long-time resident familiar with proceedure told us that the local police could issue us a permit immediately with the village manager's consent, but when we went to the police station to get one, they told us that they were not able to do that. As a fall-back, we'd gained permission from a local business owner to set up the MCRGO and SAS tables in their parking lot for the bridge crowd. We told the police officers that we'd just set up on private property and the officer in charge stated that if we did, we'd be in violation of their ordinance and we'd be ticketed, fined, and have our merchandise confiscated. There would be no tables set up on public or private property in Mackinac City on Labor Day without a permit.
We reminded them that we still had the right to speak to people and hand out literature, and the officer in charge agreed, but insisted that we could not set up a table or banner of any kind.
Fine. A general ordinance that applies to everybody equally is ok. We decided that we could live with that.
So imagine how angry we were when we found that the Million Moms had set up a table just like we'd planned to do, complete with a banner, and were distributing their propoganda. And of course they also did not have a permit.
Ross Dykman, MCRGO Vice president, was on the phone immediately, calling the police and demanding that they come out here and do what they'd told us that they'd do to anyone who set up a table without the sacred permit. We wanted to see them confiscate the Moms' stuff and cite them, just like they'd threatened to do to us. The police were on hand immediately and as they spoke with the MMM scofflaws, a city worker pointed out the village manager, Jeffery Lawson, and the Community Development Director, Steve Schnell, to us. They were standing not 20 feet from the MMM display.
We told the two city officials that we'd been denied a permit to set up such a display and that we'd been told that if we put one up without a permit, that we'd be fined and lose our material. Lawson replied that that was the policy. We then pointed out the MMM and their lack of a permit, and requested that the law be applied fairly and that they be closed down. Lawson went over to the table and the MMM types began to argue and plead and a few moments later, Lawson returned and told us that he had changed his mind and that he was going to allow them to stay.
We protested immediately. That was totally unfair and arbitrary. Mackinac had a policy which was very restrictive, but we were complying with it, assuming it to be content-neutral and evenly applied to everyone. Now we were told that only we gun-owners were barred and that this was totally unfair and unacceptable. We repeated our demand that the MMM booth be taken down.
Lawson then told me that MCRGO and SAS could then set up a booth "to make things fair." Again, this was unacceptable. Our materials were scattered or enroute back downstate with Pat Alzady, who'd already left because we didn't have a booth, and even if the stuff had been available, there wasn't the time to set a booth up without missing most of the people. "The only fair thing to do here is to close them down," we told Lawson. "That's the only thing that will make things equal here."
All we wanted was a fair application of the law. We weren't asking for any special treatment but we were definitely insisting that the MMM's not receive any.
Lawson refused to shut the MMM's down and walked away. We protested again to the police chief who was nearby, but he said he was taking his lead from Lawson and would not do anything.
So that's how Mackinac treats gun owners. They discriminate against us and they accord special favors on people who want to take your guns away. And when you confront the village manager personally on it, he's totally unwilling to even pretend to be impartial or fair.
So if you think this is wrong, you can call Jeff Lawson and tell him so. The Village office phone number is (231) 436-5351. You can reach Steve Schnell at that same number. And you might want to tell them that as a gun owner, you'll remember this when you head up north on your hunting trips this year. Remind them that there's plenty of food, gas, and motel accomodations in Gaylord, Cheboygan, Petoskey, and St. Ignace, and that there's no way you'll be spending a dime in a city that engages in this sort of discrimination. And follow through by not stopping in Mackinac City this year and by spreading this message to other hunters and shooters. If the boom brought on by hunters every fall were to pass that little village by this year, perhaps they'll be a little more respectful of the gun owners of this state in the future.
Overall, even without a table, our members milled among the other walkers at the end of the bridge and we still managed to get out several thousand pieces of MCRGO and SAS literature to other walkers. It was good to hear the thanks of many of them for coming out and representing gun owners. It should be mentioned at this point that of the MMM women there, most of them were from Illinois. A few of our people went over at various times and casually talked to the moms and found out where they were really from. Many of them were here from out of state with all expenses paid by their national headquarters. It was clearly an organized effort to bring outsiders in to crusade for changes in our gun laws and it should be kept in mind from this point on that it's not MICHIGAN women who want our laws changed no matter what you read in the papers. MMM is an ILLINOIS group and they send professional activists in here who just pretend to be Michigan Moms.
MCRGO and allies outnumber anti-gunners at Mackinac
Submitted on: September 5, 2000
Since the anti-gun "Million Mom March" announced that they would be walking the Mackinac Bridge for Labor Day to get media attention and demand more gun control, it was decided that Michigan's gun groups needed to be there as well. MCRGO and the Second Amendment Sisters (SAS) put together a pretty good turnout for the Labor Day Mackinac Bridge walk, despite what you may have read in the papers.
Between the two groups, we had about a hundred people there, either in our initial gang of walkers or in members who came over seperately. The Million Moms were there too, but most people were referring to them as the "Two Dozen Mom" marchers because there was really about that many there. And we watched them form up across the street from us before the march, and we watched them come across and gather on the south side. There's no disputing that we had them outnumbered.
But of course they got the press coverage. The next day's Lansing State Journal reported that there were over a thousand of them. That's totally ludicrous and an MCRGO staffer contacted the Journal's reporter to find out where they got that ridiculous figure. The reporter replied that Suzanne Skubick, one of the MMM organizers, phoned the paper and reported on the march, claiming to have counted that many marchers.
So when the MMM organizers couldn't attract the thousand moms that they'd promised to bring out, they simply made up a lie about their numbers and tricked several papers and news stations into spreading that lie to the public.
The Detroit Free Press at least reported accurately that the gun-control activists were only "a handful".
We had a good gathering at MCRGO organizer Kevin Volz's place before the walk. Rain notwithstanding on Sunday, we got some shooting in and had some gourmet wild game dishes prepared by Jim White of TN-USA fame, and State Rep. Scott Shackleton dropped by to socialize and snack for a while.
June Fellows, SAS's Michigan director, did a great job organizing her crowd and setting up a combined SAS/MCRGO area right at the south exit point from the bridge, and her and Pat passed out tons of literature for both groups and sold dozens of SAS and MCRGO T-shirts and hats. (To get these shirts or hats, contact Doug James at dougj@mcrgo.org or June at sas_michigan@yahoo.com )
MCRGO bumper stickers were everywhere and Kevin's house and yard were filled to capacity with pro-gunners from all over Michigan and even two from TEXAS who read about it on the website while travelling through Ohio and decided to come up.)
All-in-all, we had a lot of fun and got the word out to thousands of people. Next year, the rest of you need to be up there too so we can really make our presence felt. Plus you get to shoot.
Now one of the real downsides we experienced was having the Village of Mackinac City deny us a place to set up tables to distribute literature and sell our merchandise. June Fellows had tried a week ago and was told by someone in the village office that only 5 permits for space would be given out and that they had already been distributed. (After the walk we saw far more than five booths set up so that definitely wasn't correct.)
On our arrival Saturday, we were told that anyone could have space but that a permit was required from the village. We tried to get a permit but were told that the permits had to be approved by the village board and that approval would be impossible because they would not meet again until after Labor Day.
A long-time resident familiar with proceedure told us that the local police could issue us a permit immediately with the village manager's consent, but when we went to the police station to get one, they told us that they were not able to do that. As a fall-back, we'd gained permission from a local business owner to set up the MCRGO and SAS tables in their parking lot for the bridge crowd. We told the police officers that we'd just set up on private property and the officer in charge stated that if we did, we'd be in violation of their ordinance and we'd be ticketed, fined, and have our merchandise confiscated. There would be no tables set up on public or private property in Mackinac City on Labor Day without a permit.
We reminded them that we still had the right to speak to people and hand out literature, and the officer in charge agreed, but insisted that we could not set up a table or banner of any kind.
Fine. A general ordinance that applies to everybody equally is ok. We decided that we could live with that.
So imagine how angry we were when we found that the Million Moms had set up a table just like we'd planned to do, complete with a banner, and were distributing their propoganda. And of course they also did not have a permit.
Ross Dykman, MCRGO Vice president, was on the phone immediately, calling the police and demanding that they come out here and do what they'd told us that they'd do to anyone who set up a table without the sacred permit. We wanted to see them confiscate the Moms' stuff and cite them, just like they'd threatened to do to us. The police were on hand immediately and as they spoke with the MMM scofflaws, a city worker pointed out the village manager, Jeffery Lawson, and the Community Development Director, Steve Schnell, to us. They were standing not 20 feet from the MMM display.
We told the two city officials that we'd been denied a permit to set up such a display and that we'd been told that if we put one up without a permit, that we'd be fined and lose our material. Lawson replied that that was the policy. We then pointed out the MMM and their lack of a permit, and requested that the law be applied fairly and that they be closed down. Lawson went over to the table and the MMM types began to argue and plead and a few moments later, Lawson returned and told us that he had changed his mind and that he was going to allow them to stay.
We protested immediately. That was totally unfair and arbitrary. Mackinac had a policy which was very restrictive, but we were complying with it, assuming it to be content-neutral and evenly applied to everyone. Now we were told that only we gun-owners were barred and that this was totally unfair and unacceptable. We repeated our demand that the MMM booth be taken down.
Lawson then told me that MCRGO and SAS could then set up a booth "to make things fair." Again, this was unacceptable. Our materials were scattered or enroute back downstate with Pat Alzady, who'd already left because we didn't have a booth, and even if the stuff had been available, there wasn't the time to set a booth up without missing most of the people. "The only fair thing to do here is to close them down," we told Lawson. "That's the only thing that will make things equal here."
All we wanted was a fair application of the law. We weren't asking for any special treatment but we were definitely insisting that the MMM's not receive any.
Lawson refused to shut the MMM's down and walked away. We protested again to the police chief who was nearby, but he said he was taking his lead from Lawson and would not do anything.
So that's how Mackinac treats gun owners. They discriminate against us and they accord special favors on people who want to take your guns away. And when you confront the village manager personally on it, he's totally unwilling to even pretend to be impartial or fair.
So if you think this is wrong, you can call Jeff Lawson and tell him so. The Village office phone number is (231) 436-5351. You can reach Steve Schnell at that same number. And you might want to tell them that as a gun owner, you'll remember this when you head up north on your hunting trips this year. Remind them that there's plenty of food, gas, and motel accomodations in Gaylord, Cheboygan, Petoskey, and St. Ignace, and that there's no way you'll be spending a dime in a city that engages in this sort of discrimination. And follow through by not stopping in Mackinac City this year and by spreading this message to other hunters and shooters. If the boom brought on by hunters every fall were to pass that little village by this year, perhaps they'll be a little more respectful of the gun owners of this state in the future.
Overall, even without a table, our members milled among the other walkers at the end of the bridge and we still managed to get out several thousand pieces of MCRGO and SAS literature to other walkers. It was good to hear the thanks of many of them for coming out and representing gun owners. It should be mentioned at this point that of the MMM women there, most of them were from Illinois. A few of our people went over at various times and casually talked to the moms and found out where they were really from. Many of them were here from out of state with all expenses paid by their national headquarters. It was clearly an organized effort to bring outsiders in to crusade for changes in our gun laws and it should be kept in mind from this point on that it's not MICHIGAN women who want our laws changed no matter what you read in the papers. MMM is an ILLINOIS group and they send professional activists in here who just pretend to be Michigan Moms.