The TRT was on hand last night at Washington Ceasefire's fundraising event in downtown Seattle. The event was a program with honored guest Mike Barnes, the president of HCI. The mayor of Seattle and several other high-profile locals were also in attendance.
My family and I (husband, 10 year old son, our shooting buddy, and myself) showed up to protest around 5:15 for the event which was scheduled to start around 6 pm. We wanted to be on hand to "greet" people as they arrived.
As we parked on the street, we noticed the car at the curb in front of us held people wearing TRT tee-shirts. This made us feel better because it was our first protest ever and we were a bit worried we'd be the only ones there!
For about the next 15 minutes, it was just our family and one other couple standing out front of the building. Our son got a lot of attention from folks driving by with his sign, which read: "Rosie's Kids Are Protected by Guns" on one side, and "My Mom's Gun Protects ME!" on the other.
While I was standing there wondering if we were going to be the only folks who showed, the organizer of the event came out to the sidewalk, looking for protesters.
"Are you with the protesters?" he asked me.
It was difficult not to respond with some bit of sarcasm such as, "No, I'm just holding this sign for a friend..."
Instead, I smiled and told him, "Yes, I am. Would you like some literature?" He took a copy of CassidyGT's wonderful essay, Where I Stand.
Then he told the three of us who were standing there, "You guys have every right to be here; we support the First Amendment. All we ask is that you not interfere with people coming into the building." We said we would not and he went inside. (I wondered what he thought we were going to do ... tackle people as they came in the door?)
It wasn't long before other protestors began to arrive. The organizers for the event, Bob and Jeff, showed up together -- all smiles at the turnout. Another family, with their sons, came along and joined us. The mom of that family had a stack of "spare" signs for protesters who'd forgotten theirs.
Other people showed up in ones and twos, including one man who'd had an appointment at the hospital across the street and, seeing our signs, came to join us for awhile.
The people going into the event were all well dressed and many of them were older. With my smile firmly in place, I set about handing out my leaflets and trying to engage people in conversation. Typical conversation:
"Ma'am, would you like a leaflet?"
"NO! I don't believe that stuff."
"You sure? You should know both sides ..."
The usual end to this conversation was them entering the building, often with a slammed door -- but some of them took my papers and a few stopped long enough to talk.
One of the men stayed to talk with a group of us. He informed us that he had "many guns" at home, but that he believed registration was a wonderful thing -- all guns should be registered. One of us told him, "Registration leads to confiscation, every time..."
The man interrupted to inform us that registration does NOT lead to confiscation, and challenged us to name anywhere that guns were being confiscated as a result of registration. "Australia!" said one participant. "England!" interjected another.
Whereupon the man responded, "I meant, anywhere in the United States. Confiscation is NOT going to happen here." We pointed out that it is happening right now in California. He didn't believe us and entered the building shortly after this exchange -- but made a point of bidding us 'good night' when he left the premises.
Another man entering the building read my 10 year old son's sign and the sign of another youngster, and said to them in an angry voice, "You don't believe that b*llsh*t! That's a crock of sh*t!" and other such niceties. I was standing nearby and put on my
face for him, saying in a innocently shocked tone of voice, "You should not swear in front of children!" He exited the scene swiftly.
We'd been standing there for perhaps a half hour when a police vehicle pulled up to the curb and the officer entered the building. Shortly thereafter, she escorted a well-dressed, soft-spoken man, Robert, out of the building and he came over and stood with us. Robert had in his pocket a hard copy of an email invitation that he'd received to attend the event, confirming his "reserved" status. He'd had no problem entering the building but had been summarily escorted from the premises when Bruce Gryniewski, Director of Ceasefire Washington, recognized him.
I quote from an email Robert sent to the WSTRT email list earlier today:
<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><HR>"Bruce felt an overwhelming need to
summon a Seattle Police Department officer and another WCF member(?) to confront me. Ironically, the first words out of his mouth were to the effect of "I don't want to cause a problem, but...." His conversation was basically one of:
1. He'd refund my money, but I had to leave.
2. No, despite every indication that this was a public event, it was, in fact, a "private meeting".
3. No, he wasn't going to engage in any kind of dialogue. Even the fact that I had a hard copy of his express, by-name invitation was
not going to be discussed. Throughout, the SPD officer looked entirely uncomfortable with the proceedings."[/quote]
Robert was standing out in the cold with the rest of us, kicking himself for not being faster on his feet. "I should have smiled at them and said, 'I spent $25 to get in here, what's it worth to you to get me to leave? Shall we start the bidding at $50?'"
Not long after that, the police officer came out and told us that we needed to stand in a different area because people walking past were feeling "threatened" by our presence. We were not blocking the sidewalk in any way, but the mere fact that these people had to walk past protesters in order to enter the building had caused them to feel uncomfortable.
The officer also informed us that HCI/WCF had requested an off-duty (and presumably armed?) police officer to provide security for the event, but since none were available (read that as, "No one volunteered"), the Lieutenant had requested that the officer use some of her valuable beat time keeping an eye on the proceedings.
As the officer pulled away, someone asked her where she stood on the issue of gun control, and her response was classic: "I am not allowed to comment in an official capacity upon my private political beliefs, but I must note that I uphold the Constitution of the United States ... and there is a Second Amendment in that document."
Shortly after our 'can't comment' officer left the scene, the Mayor of Seattle arrived there -- and you can be sure that he commented in an official capacity supporting the gun-grabbers' agenda.
Another conversation I overheard between someone entering the building and one of the protesters:
"If guns are so bad, why do you want the police to have them?" The man who asked this was smiling and relaxed, but the woman visibly cowered away from him, and finally mumbled as she scurried for the door, "To protect me from people like you."
My husband had a conversation with two street drunks who were staggering by. One of them told him, "I believe everyone should be armed, it's safer that way." His sidearm of choice was a 20 ounce framing hammer. I guess it worked, because I certainly didn't want to tangle with him.
Based upon the building they'd reserved, HCI/WCF were expecting a substantially larger turnout for this event than they received. In fact, at one point someone opened the front door and jokingly said to the protesters, "You folks want to come inside? There's lots of empty seats!"
One of us instantly dropped his sign and went straight inside; the rest of us were figuring out what to do with our signs when the organizers came to the front door and informed us that none of us were invited inside, absolutely not ... and of course the one who'd managed to enter the building was escorted back out.
Surprisingly, despite the few somewhat tense encounters detailed above, the Ceasefire organizers and leaders were mostly polite and friendly. There really wasn't much tension in the air -- just shocked looks on their side and good humor on ours.
All in all, I believe this was a worthwhile activity and will very likely find myself again holding a sign when the opportunity presents itself.
pax
"The most important political office is that of private citizen." -- Louis Brandeis
My family and I (husband, 10 year old son, our shooting buddy, and myself) showed up to protest around 5:15 for the event which was scheduled to start around 6 pm. We wanted to be on hand to "greet" people as they arrived.
As we parked on the street, we noticed the car at the curb in front of us held people wearing TRT tee-shirts. This made us feel better because it was our first protest ever and we were a bit worried we'd be the only ones there!
For about the next 15 minutes, it was just our family and one other couple standing out front of the building. Our son got a lot of attention from folks driving by with his sign, which read: "Rosie's Kids Are Protected by Guns" on one side, and "My Mom's Gun Protects ME!" on the other.
While I was standing there wondering if we were going to be the only folks who showed, the organizer of the event came out to the sidewalk, looking for protesters.
"Are you with the protesters?" he asked me.
It was difficult not to respond with some bit of sarcasm such as, "No, I'm just holding this sign for a friend..."
Instead, I smiled and told him, "Yes, I am. Would you like some literature?" He took a copy of CassidyGT's wonderful essay, Where I Stand.
Then he told the three of us who were standing there, "You guys have every right to be here; we support the First Amendment. All we ask is that you not interfere with people coming into the building." We said we would not and he went inside. (I wondered what he thought we were going to do ... tackle people as they came in the door?)
It wasn't long before other protestors began to arrive. The organizers for the event, Bob and Jeff, showed up together -- all smiles at the turnout. Another family, with their sons, came along and joined us. The mom of that family had a stack of "spare" signs for protesters who'd forgotten theirs.
Other people showed up in ones and twos, including one man who'd had an appointment at the hospital across the street and, seeing our signs, came to join us for awhile.
The people going into the event were all well dressed and many of them were older. With my smile firmly in place, I set about handing out my leaflets and trying to engage people in conversation. Typical conversation:
"Ma'am, would you like a leaflet?"
"NO! I don't believe that stuff."
"You sure? You should know both sides ..."
The usual end to this conversation was them entering the building, often with a slammed door -- but some of them took my papers and a few stopped long enough to talk.
One of the men stayed to talk with a group of us. He informed us that he had "many guns" at home, but that he believed registration was a wonderful thing -- all guns should be registered. One of us told him, "Registration leads to confiscation, every time..."
The man interrupted to inform us that registration does NOT lead to confiscation, and challenged us to name anywhere that guns were being confiscated as a result of registration. "Australia!" said one participant. "England!" interjected another.
Whereupon the man responded, "I meant, anywhere in the United States. Confiscation is NOT going to happen here." We pointed out that it is happening right now in California. He didn't believe us and entered the building shortly after this exchange -- but made a point of bidding us 'good night' when he left the premises.
Another man entering the building read my 10 year old son's sign and the sign of another youngster, and said to them in an angry voice, "You don't believe that b*llsh*t! That's a crock of sh*t!" and other such niceties. I was standing nearby and put on my
face for him, saying in a innocently shocked tone of voice, "You should not swear in front of children!" He exited the scene swiftly.We'd been standing there for perhaps a half hour when a police vehicle pulled up to the curb and the officer entered the building. Shortly thereafter, she escorted a well-dressed, soft-spoken man, Robert, out of the building and he came over and stood with us. Robert had in his pocket a hard copy of an email invitation that he'd received to attend the event, confirming his "reserved" status. He'd had no problem entering the building but had been summarily escorted from the premises when Bruce Gryniewski, Director of Ceasefire Washington, recognized him.
I quote from an email Robert sent to the WSTRT email list earlier today:
<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><HR>"Bruce felt an overwhelming need to
summon a Seattle Police Department officer and another WCF member(?) to confront me. Ironically, the first words out of his mouth were to the effect of "I don't want to cause a problem, but...." His conversation was basically one of:
1. He'd refund my money, but I had to leave.
2. No, despite every indication that this was a public event, it was, in fact, a "private meeting".
3. No, he wasn't going to engage in any kind of dialogue. Even the fact that I had a hard copy of his express, by-name invitation was
not going to be discussed. Throughout, the SPD officer looked entirely uncomfortable with the proceedings."[/quote]
Robert was standing out in the cold with the rest of us, kicking himself for not being faster on his feet. "I should have smiled at them and said, 'I spent $25 to get in here, what's it worth to you to get me to leave? Shall we start the bidding at $50?'"
Not long after that, the police officer came out and told us that we needed to stand in a different area because people walking past were feeling "threatened" by our presence. We were not blocking the sidewalk in any way, but the mere fact that these people had to walk past protesters in order to enter the building had caused them to feel uncomfortable.
The officer also informed us that HCI/WCF had requested an off-duty (and presumably armed?) police officer to provide security for the event, but since none were available (read that as, "No one volunteered"), the Lieutenant had requested that the officer use some of her valuable beat time keeping an eye on the proceedings.
As the officer pulled away, someone asked her where she stood on the issue of gun control, and her response was classic: "I am not allowed to comment in an official capacity upon my private political beliefs, but I must note that I uphold the Constitution of the United States ... and there is a Second Amendment in that document."
Shortly after our 'can't comment' officer left the scene, the Mayor of Seattle arrived there -- and you can be sure that he commented in an official capacity supporting the gun-grabbers' agenda.
Another conversation I overheard between someone entering the building and one of the protesters:
"If guns are so bad, why do you want the police to have them?" The man who asked this was smiling and relaxed, but the woman visibly cowered away from him, and finally mumbled as she scurried for the door, "To protect me from people like you."
My husband had a conversation with two street drunks who were staggering by. One of them told him, "I believe everyone should be armed, it's safer that way." His sidearm of choice was a 20 ounce framing hammer. I guess it worked, because I certainly didn't want to tangle with him.
Based upon the building they'd reserved, HCI/WCF were expecting a substantially larger turnout for this event than they received. In fact, at one point someone opened the front door and jokingly said to the protesters, "You folks want to come inside? There's lots of empty seats!"
One of us instantly dropped his sign and went straight inside; the rest of us were figuring out what to do with our signs when the organizers came to the front door and informed us that none of us were invited inside, absolutely not ... and of course the one who'd managed to enter the building was escorted back out.
Surprisingly, despite the few somewhat tense encounters detailed above, the Ceasefire organizers and leaders were mostly polite and friendly. There really wasn't much tension in the air -- just shocked looks on their side and good humor on ours.
All in all, I believe this was a worthwhile activity and will very likely find myself again holding a sign when the opportunity presents itself.
pax
"The most important political office is that of private citizen." -- Louis Brandeis