My count is 6 members from the forum going. I saw Mark Mathews name on the roster when I registered.
I was there, answered the early question from the lady about "why are pro-gun folks against registration." There were some excellent comments (like skidmark's comments about SCOTUS rulings on police not having duty to assist, the Bonus Army comments, and more). There was also a bunch of weapons-grade stupid from the anti-gunners.
Let's see if I can recall a few highlights:
1. The lady whose question I answered followed up with a question that was basically "well, since the might of the US military is unstoppable as shown at Waco and Ruby Ridge, why not disarm and just make change thru the voting booth?" I was stunned. I really wanted to say either:
(A) "that's the moral equivalent of telling a woman who is about to be raped by a more powerful man 'honey, just relax and enjoy it'"
or
(B) "Malvo and Muhammed tied NoVA up in knots of fear for days and days, and they were just two knuckleheads with a simple plan. Give me 10 men with cool heads, who can follow orders, work as a team, shoot well, and are committed to their cause, and I can bring an entire state government to its knees without harming a single human."
Then I remembered we were being videotaped so I tried to politely tell her she was ignorant.
2. The rape victim who claims that she is only alive because she did NOT have a gun. If she was 9 years old at the time, OK, she might reasonably doubt her ability to effectively use a firearm. But damn, a woman in that position who has a gun has a duty to kill the rapist, for the sake of all the other women in the world. I'm still not sure where she was coming from since she started out saying that the current gun-control effort is necessary because it makes people "feel better," then she wrapped up by saying "get rational, people!" In between, she went off on the male-dominated tone of the evening, despite the fact that Tom Silvestri managed to get probably a 50-50 distribution of male to female speakers.
3. I'm still not sure if the English woman was afraid of the government or criminals.
4. I was chilled to the bone by the Vietnam veteran's story about gearing up during the Nixon administration to be unleashed on protesters.
Basically, there are two types of people in the world: those who find logic and reason useful in everyday life, and those who run on pure emotion. Some people are at the extremes, most people are somewhere in the middle. Once again, the anti-gun folks seemed to be more emotion-based and simply would not let facts interfere with their opinions. I thought the pro-gun side represented well.
Honorable Mention: the Nobel Prize for Shameless Self-Promotion is awarded to...... JIM REYNOLDS AND PROACTIVE SHOOTERS!!!!:banana:
LOL, just kidding Jim!
