Million Gun Owners March in 2009

imported post

So what do you guys think about this?



http://www.ar15.com/forums/topic.html?b=1&f=137&t=785242

imported post

Perhaps keep it on the Virginia side so all that are legally allowed to do socan be armed. Open carrying of course...



Edit: Spelling

imported post

Unarmed, sure... but that's kind oflike union workers picketingin Ferraris and Prada suitsfor wage increases.

Armed? That would be an amazing thing to see and really get a point across, but maybe not a good idea, as already pointed out by someone in the thread:

NRA could organize it, particularly if they coordinated their efforts with other pro-2nd organizations such as GOA and JPFO.


Make no mistake it COULD be done, and attendance could easily break a million, but
it'd take time and determined effort. I figure it wouldn't be possible to make it happen
before July 4th...which would of course be an ideal day to hold the march.


There would be problems, though. Some people would insist on marching ARMED. But
for obvious reasons, it would have to be strictly a "leave your guns at home" event.

And yet...what more powerful statement could be made than to see well over one million
armed citizens marching through Washington, DC, in a peaceful show of force?


The danger of that deteriorating rapidly would be too great.


CJ

Click to expand...

imported post

It was done in 1994 and 1995, on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial, I went to the 1995 rally. It was peaceful and well organized unfortunately far less than a million.

imported post

longwatch wrote:

It was done in 1994 and 1995, on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial, I went to the 1995 rally. It was peaceful and well organized unfortunately far less than a million.

Click to expand...

Does the million man march even get anywhere near a million? I thought they only called it that because it sounded good.

imported post

AWDstylez wrote:

longwatch wrote:

It was done in 1994 and 1995, on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial, I went to the 1995 rally. It was peaceful and well organized unfortunately far less than a million.

Click to expand...

Does the million man march even get anywhere near a million? I thought they only called it that because it sounded good.

Click to expand...

A few groups have come close, the original Million Man March, the Million Mom March, and Promise Keepers were all near that mark.

imported post

Diesel 007 wrote:

So what do you guys think about this?



http://www.ar15.com/forums/topic.html?b=1&f=137&t=785242

Click to expand...

Seriously, an undertaking like that requires at least a year's preparation, and needs funding for all sorts of issues including the posting of a security bond. IIRC the MMM posted a $5 Million bond - I'd bet the DC.gov would impose at least twice that much for this march.

Anybody else old enough to remember the SDS "May Day" march of '71? The one where they tried to levitate the Pentagon, tried to block the bridges over the Potomac, etc? I was visiting the future ex-Mrs. Skidmark and viewed much of it from a suite at the Hotel Presidential. With emotion running extremely high against the Vietnam War, and no real internet, and without complying with any legal requirements, it still took SDS organizers about 6 months to muster about 100,000 mostly college kids. What with the FBI not wanting to break it up before it happened, it was fairly easy to organize even with the communicatiuons limitations of the day. With our current system and it's survelience (do not think they are not listening/reading) the chances are good that the organizers will not be at the event because they could not get a day pass from the warden. [* cough - Patriot Act - cough*]

In spite of all that, I support the idea. I just think you are rushing it to try for Spring '09. And the Mall is reserved for fireworks on July 4th - try to displace that and you will see the definition of civil unrest! Guy Fawks Day might not be a bad date for '09 if action starts immediately on planning.

Let me know if anybody steps up to take charge - I know it is beyond my capabilities, as awesome as they may seem [blush].

stay safe.

skidmark

imported post

i'd be down for it.

imported post

I wonder what they (they being the government) would do if 1,000,000 armed citizens took to the streets of DC to peacefully protest?

Food for thought.I think the armed aspect of it should be thought about.

imported post

Prophet wrote:

I wonder what they (they being the government) would do if 1,000,000 armed citizens took to the streets of DC to peacefully protest?

Food for thought.I think the armed aspect of it should be thought about.

Click to expand...

I can see the CNN "Breaking News" headline now:

BREAKING NEWS - 1 MILLION ARMED DOMESTIC TERRORISTS DESCEND ON CAPITOL

The next AWB would unanimously pass the next day, no grandfather clause, and no sunset.

I personally like the idea of a march, but think it would be extremely stupid to do it armed.

imported post

MetalChris wrote:

Prophet wrote:

I wonder what they (they being the government) would do if 1,000,000 armed citizens took to the streets of DC to peacefully protest?

Food for thought.I think the armed aspect of it should be thought about.

Click to expand...

I can see the CNN "Breaking News" headline now:

BREAKING NEWS - 1 MILLION ARMED DOMESTIC TERRORISTS DESCEND ON CAPITOL

The next AWB would unanimously pass the next day, no grandfather clause, and no sunset.

I personally like the idea of a march, but think it would be extremely stupid to do it armed.

Click to expand...

LOL

I'd have to agree with that.

imported post

longwatch wrote:

A few groups have come close, the original Million Man March, the Million Mom March, and Promise Keepers were all near that mark.

Click to expand...

I'm sorry, but I don't believe that for a split second!

Lets do the math. When the Mexicans were marching here in California, they claimed there were a million Mexicans marching, but that was just an egotistical exaggeration and a complete fantasy.

Figure it this way. A group of men are marching down a street in the way they would in a "Million Man March." Okay, EVEN IF they were marching in formation like a marching band, in rows and columns, and EVEN IF the formation was tightly compact, each man would require say ... three feet of width and five feet of length, or FIFTEEN SQUARE FEET of space to march down the street without tripping over the person in front of him or rubbing elbows with the person to his left or right.

So one MILLION people in this formation means a MINIMUM of 15 MILLION square feet of space required, and that is one continuous line of people with NO breaks and NO missing men.

So they're marching down a street that is six lanes wide. Each lane is 11 feet wide and there are NO parked cars along either side of the street for the entire distance, so they have 66 feet of street, curb-to-curb for the entire route. 22 men in formation can march down this street shoulder to shoulder in a single row. That means there would be 45,454 rows of men and a few stragglers behind them in the final row. 45,454 rows, each using five feet of space front to rear is 227,273 feet. Divide that by 5,280 feet per mile and that perfectly formed group of men 22 wide with NO breaks in the line and NO missing men would be ... just over 43 MILES LONG, and they haven't even taken a single step yet! Now they're marching, what ... FIVE MILES? Is anyone going to tell me that ANY protest march took up 48 MILES of a six lane road with ALL of the marchers in formation, tightly blocked like a marching band? LOL!

When people "march" in a protest like this, they space themselves out, they push strollers and walk dogs and ride bicycles. They have their incorrigible kids along, they carry banners and signs, they run to the edges to interact with onlookers ... there is no freaking WAY the average protest marcher will use only 15 square feet of space!

Now tell me again how the "million man march" and "Promise Keepers" approached one million people! I seriously doubt they had 50,000

Even locked arm-in-arm on a 66 foot wide road using only THREE FEET of space front to rear, the line would still be over 17 MILES long.

Nope. No "one million" marchers at either event. No way. No how.

imported post

Party pooper.

imported post

Good back-of-the-envelope analysis. I have seen similar based on photographs of the crowds standing on the gridded paving at a claimed 'million man' event.

I am amused that the method of crowd estimation is actually a topic of legislation.
http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpa...932A15753C1A963958260&sec=&spon=&pagewanted=2

imported post

A march of armed citizens??? ...but, but, but you can't do that. Think of the children.

imported post

Thundar wrote:

A march of armed citizens??? ...but, but, but you can't do that. Think of the children.

Click to expand...

Oh puulease, we'll be hearing from that _itch soon enough, Joycelyn Elders. Too bad she wasn't preaching her birth control alternative to the elder Mr. Obama.

imported post

You're going about this the wrong way. Modern surveillence and the governement's willingness to arrest anyone who disagrees with them make such an event virtually impossible.

Abandon the concept of centralized control. Go google "flash mob" and proceed from there.

imported post

Consider this: Let's say that, per gravedigger (11 November 2008 Tuesday 02:45), the march doesn't reach quite a million. Let's go small, say, 25,000. Out of that 25,000 armed people, who have managed to show up without the domestic security forces blocking the bridges and being generally in full-out riot stance, about how may would you say would be negligent discharges waiting to happen? Zero? Please.

What do you think would happen when the first negligent discharge took place?

But let's say that there will be a "no ammo" rule. How will that be ensured, and how much trouble will it be?

canadian (11 November 2008 Tuesday 11:24) suggests:

Go google "flash mob" and proceed from there.

Click to expand...

I'm a bit out of my depth here (IANAL, etc., etc.) but I'd be a bit concerned that

[align=center]flash mob + firearms = riot[/align]
at least in the eyes of the Guardians of Order at whatever place it was happening.

And not to be a spoilsport, but just what would this march be designed to accomplish, anyway? Regardless, there are serious things to think about.

regards,

GR

PS: IMHO, the idea of individual or small group open carry on a wide basis will accomplish at least as much with less cost.

imported post

ya, I would be down too.



I would love to see Nancy Grace's show the next day.. HAHAHA.

imported post

Yeah a million armed citizens marching on Washington would pretty much make for a 'revolution in progress'.

POTUS and the entire House and Senate would have to go on holiday before that could happen.