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A patriotic empty holster protest

mavidal

Regular Member
Joined
Apr 27, 2009
Messages
74
Location
Miami, Florida, United States
Our rights are being attacked:

Hi group, in the aftermath of the Trayvon/Zimmerman incident the Miami Herald, that bastion of liberal/progressive bull has started an attack campaign against the stand your ground law. Saturday, it was literally a page and half of Trayvon and Anti gun rhetoric. Yesterday a full page attack on the stand your ground law and gun rights. Today another full page attack courtesy of the Tampa Bay Times on why the law does not work citing 140 cases they studied and highlighting 4 of them.

If we sit quietly by and do nothing we are going to end up loosing our rights again and this is what is bothering me. I know we don't want to stir the pot so to speak, but we cannot allow our rights to be trampled on again.

What I am proposing is the following:

We should hold an empty holsters protest in front of these media outlets to protest our rights. This can be done peaceably, without all the race baiting that the other sides loves to implement. I think that if we were to get a good turnout across the state, I think that would send a message that we the people have had enough. I believe that doing this on the 4th of July would be a very patriotic message. We can do this in the morning and have time to enjoy the BarBQ and fireworks later in the day.

Thoughts?

Mike V.
 

jammer

Regular Member
Joined
Sep 24, 2008
Messages
85
Location
, ,
empty gun holster

Our rights are being attacked:

Hi group, in the aftermath of the Trayvon/Zimmerman incident the Miami Herald, that bastion of liberal/progressive bull has started an attack campaign against the stand your ground law. Saturday, it was literally a page and half of Trayvon and Anti gun rhetoric. Yesterday a full page attack on the stand your ground law and gun rights. Today another full page attack courtesy of the Tampa Bay Times on why the law does not work citing 140 cases they studied and highlighting 4 of them.

If we sit quietly by and do nothing we are going to end up loosing our rights again and this is what is bothering me. I know we don't want to stir the pot so to speak, but we cannot allow our rights to be trampled on again.

What I am proposing is the following:

We should hold an empty holsters protest in front of these media outlets to protest our rights. This can be done peaceably, without all the race baiting that the other sides loves to implement. I think that if we were to get a good turnout across the state, I think that would send a message that we the people have had enough. I believe that doing this on the 4th of July would be a very patriotic message. We can do this in the morning and have time to enjoy the BarBQ and fireworks later in the day.

Thoughts?

Mike V.

I'm their!! sounds great, i'm all for it . HAPPY 4 TH OF JULY !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
 

Rich7553

Regular Member
Joined
Jan 15, 2010
Messages
515
Location
SWFL
Remember, you're dealing with the media. They will no doubt spin it into portraying you as a rabid, hate-spitting gun nut. This is not the image we want to portray when we approach the legislature to get them to support open carry and other initiatives next year.

Last year, Ethan Traub's group had an open carry fishing event in Venice. Instead of simply going OC fishing, they decide to be "in your face" and park a mile away from where they were fishing, and parade through downtown. Florida Carry has been holding OC fishing events for over two years, and has never had a protester. Yet, Ethan's group drew some. When the news hit the legislature, we got a call saying that one of our sponsors was considering withdrawing support of one of our bills. It took some time to convince him that Florida Carry was not associated with Traub and that we had publicly denounced his methods.

Trust me, you won't be doing gun rights any favors by doing this. Florida Carry holds open carry fishing events every second Saturday of every month at multiple locations throughout the state, with the exception of the one we hold on the Fourth of July weekend. It is the anniversary of our very first event. We portray gun owners as responsible and level-headed. The press has shown up at a couple of our events and the reports have been fair. It wouldn't take much to upset the apple cart.
 

thebigsd

Founder's Club Member
Joined
Mar 23, 2010
Messages
3,535
Location
Quarryville, PA
It sounds like a decent idea to me.

Rich, it seems you always have a problem when someone wants to try something different and apart from Florida Carry. If you don't do anything different, you can't expect different results. This empty holster protest idea is far less confrontational than Traub's event.
 
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Rich7553

Regular Member
Joined
Jan 15, 2010
Messages
515
Location
SWFL
It sounds like a decent idea to me.

Rich, it seems you always have a problem when someone wants to try something different and apart from Florida Carry. If you don't do anything different, you can't expect different results. This empty holster protest idea is far less confrontational than Traub's event.

I have a problem when it can negatively affect our efforts in the legislature, yes. Look, the media is anti-gun. This is well known. They are the ones writing the story. They are the ones who have an anti-gun audience. They have the ability to make it look like the peaceful empty protesters were out there publicly clubbing baby seals. Besides, why is the target of the holster protest the media to begin with? If you think you're going to change their minds or make them see the error of their ways, you're going to be disappointed.

You need to win public approval, not the media. By winning pubic approval, you can positively influence the legislature. And the way to win the gun-wary public's approval is by showing them you're a responsible, law-abiding gun owner. Lord knows they've repeatedly been told otherwise by multiple sources.
 

j4l

Regular Member
Joined
Jan 6, 2011
Messages
1,835
Location
fl
It sounds like a decent idea to me.

Rich, it seems you always have a problem when someone wants to try something different and apart from Florida Carry. If you don't do anything different, you can't expect different results. This empty holster protest idea is far less confrontational than Traub's event.

Indeed. Perhaps not in front of the media, but somewhere public enough to get some attention. An EMPTY holster event should be hard to take as threatening as opposed to some yahoos parading around OC. Heck, if it feels better, make it a silent protest as well. Then the media, nor anyone else can twist anyone's words.
Have Florida Carry or whoever provide some flyers/leaflets explaining the cause, etc. for the "protestors" to carry.
Then, when /if approached and asked why a few hundred folks are milling around with holsters that have no guns, they just smile and hand em the flyer.
Silence can be amazingly effective- and un-nerving.
 

ADulay

Regular Member
Joined
Oct 5, 2008
Messages
512
Location
Punta Gorda, Florida, USA
....Then, when /if approached and asked why a few hundred folks are milling around with holsters that have no guns, they just smile and hand em the flyer.
How about those same 100 folks or so make it to a valid OC fishing event and THEN hand out those silent flyers!

Very cool.

AD (open carry advocate, full time)
 

j4l

Regular Member
Joined
Jan 6, 2011
Messages
1,835
Location
fl
For what purpose? The 6 or 7 clowns likely to be at some pier in BFE nowhere, who would really rather just get a catfish or two?
Even if there's more, it's likely more like preaching to the choir than actually reaching more folks.
 

thebigsd

Founder's Club Member
Joined
Mar 23, 2010
Messages
3,535
Location
Quarryville, PA
For what purpose? The 6 or 7 clowns likely to be at some pier in BFE nowhere, who would really rather just get a catfish or two?
Even if there's more, it's likely more like preaching to the choir than actually reaching more folks.

I agree, with the exception of calling them clowns.

There are just certain people who are never going to go fishing or go to the park, they are not going to be reached by a fishing trip. An empty holster protest is non-violent and has the potential to be eye-opening for some folks. You can't be afraid to ruffle a few feathers in the pursuit of your rights.

Here in VA we are very aggressive with our activism and we have good results to show for it. This past January we had several hundred armed individuals visit the state capitol in a show of force. Nothing horrible and several pro-gun bills were passed this year.

If you want the laws to change you need to be pro-active. If your legislators get spooked by empty holsters then I say it's time you got new legislators.
 

j4l

Regular Member
Joined
Jan 6, 2011
Messages
1,835
Location
fl
I agree, with the exception of calling them clowns.

There are just certain people who are never going to go fishing or go to the park, they are not going to be reached by a fishing trip. An empty holster protest is non-violent and has the potential to be eye-opening for some folks. You can't be afraid to ruffle a few feathers in the pursuit of your rights.

Here in VA we are very aggressive with our activism and we have good results to show for it. This past January we had several hundred armed individuals visit the state capitol in a show of force. Nothing horrible and several pro-gun bills were passed this year.

If you want the laws to change you need to be pro-active. If your legislators get spooked by empty holsters then I say it's time you got new legislators.

Here , here.
I've been trying to convince them to change the legislators since their last betrayals with our OC bill, to no avail. None seem willing to take that step towards voting outside the box- but instead seem to insist upon going back and begging the same folks who betrayed us last time. Got far too many folks who are still brainwashed into voting "safe" with the same 2 parties of degenerates as always. Even when provided candidates from within our own ranks, here, they shy away.
 
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mavidal

Regular Member
Joined
Apr 27, 2009
Messages
74
Location
Miami, Florida, United States
Just two links of how the attacks continue:

http://www.miamiherald.com/2012/04/04/2732042/gun-culture-gang-wars-are-deadly.html

http://www.miamiherald.com/2012/04/04/2731902/us-gun-lobby-could-help-stop-mexicos.html

And how the public is responding:

http://www.miamiherald.com/2012/04/04/2732017/nra-owns-legislature.html Written by Edwad Shohat, Mr. Shohat has been in the private practice of criminal defense since November 1972, twenty-seven years. In that time, Mr. Shohat has handled the most serious, challenging and often the most notorious state and federal cases on the local and national scene

http://www.miamiherald.com/2012/04/04/2732015/target-guns.html

Sticking your head in the sand, or trying to deal with it on the legislative agenda at this point in time is a bit naive. Yes we need the legislative support, but if the public opinion is being turned against us, we loose.

Mike V.
 
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