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Meeting complete.
First of all, this meeting was a blast. It was not so much a question/answer forum, it was a social meeting. They weren't there to talk politics. I felt kinda dickish bringing up politics so I dropped the subject after a bit and just chatted. They were there for other issues and we talked about those in depth, and if 2a came up we went over it. I talk about guns alot, so it came up anyways but in this manner it was natural instead of pushing the issues.
So here is the range report:
Representative Morrison: She signed the inside top cover of my pocket Constitution. She thought at first I was asking her to sign a petition of some sort. She said"Texas is all about open carry" and dodged the conversation. Our conversation was brief, mostly covering the who you are and where you are from things. I asked her how she got into politics, and she replied that it was a long story. She explained a bit of it to me. Very gracious lady.
Representative Aycock: He love the idea of open carry. He was the second person I talked to, and HE brought up guns. By signing the Second Amendment in my pocket Constitution. He was awesome to talk to.
Representative Alvarado: She knew about the open carry of firearms but did not offer her opinion. I think she does not support O/C, but stalled and was unsure of what else to talk about. The conversation stuttered at this point, so I asked her to sign my pocket Const. She signed the 15th Amendment. I mentioned my support of bringing hardworking families to America, no matter their language. She appreciated my comments and mentioned that the borders do need to be secure, but people here are coming to make better lives. I agreed. We then stuttered back and forth. She was very interesting but my difficulty in talking to pretty women got in the way. I think the mesage of freedom may be getting lost if we don't support freedom for immigrants as well.
Representative Robert Miklos: He happily signed my pocket Const, on the 1st Amendment "because the Second was already taken." He told me about the bill and how it was in discusion with the chief of police and all that. We chatted for a short time longer, not much. This is where I felt like a jerk who needed to get out more. He was really interesting but
I was on a mission dammit. Mr Miklos was very interesting and cool to talk to. I am sorry now for not chatting longer. He looks like
Harvey Dent before the acid. If I get a chance again, I just want to sit with this guy and bs about anything and everything. He was one of those kinds of conversationalists. He is going to go as far politically as he wants to.
Representative Brown: She signed the front inside cover of my pocket Const. This wonderful woman was the last person I outright brought up the open carry movement with. She asked me how I felt about it. She, apparently choosing her words carefully, mentioned that she has a concealed carry permit and that she felt like their current laws with concealed carry only was working fine and did not need to be changed. I did not want to seem argumentative, and her phrasing indicated that she was afraid I may be, so I thanked her for being willing to offer me her opinion even though we disagreed. The converation died there (again with the pretty women!) and I moved on.
Representative Hefflin: We chatted in general, and talked about the hows and where froms and all that. Excellent conversation but nothing relevant to this forum. He signed the bottom inside of the front cover.
Representative Shuffield: He signed the third Amendment because it was the next one in line not taken. We chatte a little bit, but he was swamped with real constituients so I let him be.
Representative Maldonado: She was interested in my combat tours (they all were) but I talked to her about them primarily. The event were starting to close up at this time, and someone was trying very hard to uhh... associate... later on with her. I was interfering with the attempts so I moved along.
The last person I talked to was the Mayor of Harker Heights, Ed Mullen. Mr Mullen was a Nam Vet and we really kicked it off. We talked about me, how military deployments affect me and my wife, and other things. He told me about his time and when he came back from Nam someone shot his bus two times! We had somewhat similar jobs in the service, so we talked about the old and new ways of doing things. He questioned if there was something the city could do for the soldiers, because there was a high rate of DV for freshly returning troops*. I asked him a question to try and narrow down the field to get a better idea what he was getting at but he said wherever you want to go with this. Given an open forum, I mentioned thus: Soldiers tend to be hard workers, especially right after they come back from deployment. Perhaps something like a repaint the school and bbq? Mr Mullen loved the idea. It gets soldiers to participate in the local community and actually have a part in how it develops. It can be a source of pride and something to outlet energy into. He said he is going to put it on the {suggestion roster} (I forget the real name.) I mentioned the BBQ part a few more times because soldiers will come running for free food. Also the turn out would be pretty low if it was an offer just to work for free.
As we are wrapping up the day, Mr Mullen reaches into his pocket... and gives me a COIN! I GOT COINED BY THE MAYOR! (ask your military friend how much this means.) The coin on one side says 1963, and has a H with a star in it. Around the edges it says City of Harker Heights Texas, The Bright Star of Central Texas. On the reverse side there is a picture of city hall. The American flag waves over the top and the Texas flag is on the bottom.
Holy hell I had a fun time. Once I stopped talking politics right off the bat, they couldn't get enough of me. Some guy was walking around taking pictures and whenever I saw him I tried really hard to make a normal smile. Mine looks like I want to bite people.
Lesons learned: I hope I did not put anyone off with my forwardness. This was a social event. Nobody seemed like they really wanted to talk politics, even the supporters. Once I dropped it I actually got alot further with talking to them about general things, and if guns came up, we talked about them. If not, that is cool too.
Politicians are awesome to talk to if you don't talk politics. They seem genuinely happy to speak with people without an agenda. They'll talk about anything, too. With that in mind I am going to keep the agenda at home for all subsequent social events. I plan to just show up and talk shop, and let their questions guide the conversations.
* Domestic violence among soldiers is lower than their corresponding civilian age groups. The highest rate for DV is in 18-24 year olds military and non, and most soldiers are 18-24 years old. This skews the statistics against soldiers as a group in the local communities.
