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Keep and Bear Arms Rally at the State Capitol

Sig229

Sig229

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Dec 14, 2006
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Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA
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Wonderer wrote:
Will be there unless grandchilds birth interferes.
Click to expand...

Why not just have the mother give birth at the rally?

That would be a dream come true if I got older and found out I was born at a Gun Rights rally.

lol Just kidding with you.

I hope he/she is healthy and the mother has an easy birth.
Let us know how they do!
 
W

Wonderer

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Sep 11, 2008
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Location
Beaver County, , USA
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I am grandma.... and may have youngins to care for, for a spell.....



by the way posting this flier in several locations would help us all!!!!!

thanks to all!!!!
 
W

WhiteFeather

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Joined
Jul 9, 2007
Messages
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Location
Oley, Pennsylvania, USA
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Ahh Stat you beat me too it, by a wide margine too!

Here is some of the text copied from the PAFOA WHITEFEATHER.

So get the day off and lets show them what we are made of!!!

I got the word from Kim Stolfer on inauguration day for the big O, 1-20-09 on the Second Amendment is Second to None legislator interactive lobby event in Harrisburg date is set.

It’s going to be held on APRIL 21, 2009

I wanted to give my fellow PAFOA members the most advance knowledge so everyone now has approximately 12 week or 3 months prior notice to make personal arrangements for making time off to attend this important event.

I will update this post here with the official press release version when its available, till then these will serve as a advance notice of the date till then.

http://forum.pafoa.org/political-138...arrisburg.html (Second Amendment Second to None Rally in Harrisburg)

If you want to see how it’s going play out look at last years event here to read about it, this year is going to be very similar except WE hope a lot more gun owners take a more pro active role in attending and working with them to personally fight for their rights.

I wanted till the official information is finished being written give everyone that never attended one of these in the past a brief overview of What, How and Why WE do these events and break down of how the day will unfold.

We usually try to have people arrive and start gathering in the rotunda steps at the capitol
Between 9-10am and resister in / sign up, this helps track the number of attendees and opens a direct communication route with your contact info. The information collected won’t be shared, given, sold or used for any other purpose other than trying to give individual gun owner a means of keeping in the legislative activist alert system to help you Like minded gun owners all over PA help stop anti-gun bills or urging your Reps to support pro-gun bills right before key votes.

Last year a Washington county FFL dealer Ace number one for gun sporting good store donated a free handgun as a door prize for everyone that attended and signed up a chance to win at no cost……if you are the lucky one to win you won’t receive the gun that day but you will get a certificate to pick it up later date. We probably will get another gun this year to give away as well, no confirmation to date.

Here is one of the most important parts we have invited several well know local and national second amendment supporters as key speakers to address US and the media. We also welcome and encourage PRO GUN Reps from both parties to stand with US at the introduction of pro-gun legislation that many of these same Reps proudly standing their with us have introduced on gun owners behalf. This usually runs from 45 – 60 minutes in a series a short speeches by a variety of speakers.

After that WE have all attendees break up into smaller groups and under the supervision of team leaders take you to Reps offices to meet with some of them or their staffers and give you the opportunity personally engage elected Reps with your thoughts and feelings on gun ownership and reasons why laws should be changed or rewritten to focus on criminal misuse of firearms, not on restricting your rights as law abiding Citizens.

There are 203 state house Reps and 50 senators in the time between 11am-3pm and an hour break for lunch you and your team leader will be hard pressed to go to the 10 to 13 offices assigned to them. Between the travel around in the building time / between offices you will have between 10-15 minutes per office. Some Reps won’t be there other times they will be or you will just engage staffers that will relay your feeling to their bosses. So its important to win them over as well. Some staffer really appreciate what we do even if some of the Reps they work for are big time gun control people, we have gotten some great inside classified intelligence from some of these staffers who after talking with us have shared some advanced warning of pending anti-gun legislation there boss were going to be sponsoring. Why do they do this? They believe in the righteous of our cause after taking with us and sometimes they even ask for extra copies of our talking points to share with their family and friends. This is how important it is to wining the hearts and minds of staffers and elected officials. One major anti-gun Rep staffer has ran so many extra copies of pro-gun legislation off for us on their bosses copy machine they would get fired if they only knew……..how much they have helped in Harrisburg in fighting gun control.

So WE ALWAYS try to be polite and friendly even to dedicated hard core anti-gunners, you can catch more bears with honey rather than vinegar, so ALWAYS try to be polite and friendly. Most Reps have no idea what the existing gun laws are any more than anyone else including most gun owners do till they run afoul of them. So WE are try to EDUCATE them, why many of the so called “common sense” and “reasonable” infringements proposed gun laws that have been tried in other states have done NOTHING to address the criminal elements that were used as reasons to enact them there and WHY if enacted here they will fail as well, cost taxpayers lots of money that could be better spent on proven measures that actually effect criminals instead of enacting another gun control law that feels good but will not solve anything except possible make some of US into criminals if we violate them. As WE all know any law enacted ONLY effects people that obey them, which is why gun controls fail miserably because they falsely focus on gun control rather than criminal control.

Also elected people are just people like the rest US no smarter or less just like we have many gun owning friends and acquaintances that are actual anti-gun in their believes you will find Reps that hunt and own guns but mostly vote anti-gun, for things like banning so called assault weapons/ high capacity magazines, are for one gun a month, lost or stolen, letting local municipalities regulate firearms in ANY manor etc….if its for a hunting issues they will vote with us other than that they always lobby for more gun control and some even directly work with anti-groups that always lobby to take away our firearm rights…..

So we always try to educate everyone or at least show why there same old lame attempts at gun control proposals that has failed in others states, so why will it work any better in PA? WE have been very good at taking the zeal and dedication out their attempts by educating them, after prior to gun owners directly engage them they have never even thought about the ideas or how they really expect them to work in the real world and it really demoralizes some of them, when they even admit to US they know they won’t work but come back that “we have to do something”. They will still vote against us but they can’t do it thinking they still have the moral high ground or in the righteous of their cause. Other times from talking with the anti-gun Reps you will learn about the very real problems of out of control criminals back in their districts….So you get a chance to understand some of the reasons they vote they way they do and the problems in the big cities that most of US living in the suburbs or rural areas don’t have the same problems, but they can still vote your rights away without at least knowing what happens in other parts of the state, so it can be a real learning experience for anyone that attends these legislative lobbying events.

Also since WE try to organize team leaders and assign them to a small area of rooms in one area of the capital complex to save on travel time of wandering all around the capital, you might not to actually see your Reps. We try to have people go in every Reps office (all 253 depend on mission and size of attendance) both pro and anti-gun Reps. Without hitting all of them with information / education, many would have no one go to their offices, IF no one is complaining about this proposed bill must be OK to vote anti-gun. In many of these events WE have no gun owners from many of these Reps home districts, yet these same Reps can vote your firearm rights away. So when you attend this event you may actually not have a chance to meet with your own Reps, it shouldn’t be a big deal anyway, you should have already contacted them or made a special meeting with them back home to discuses your views prior to this Harrisburg event. If your team leader completes the assigned Reps you are free to break off and lobby them if there is time remaining before you go home. Also if you want to do your own program after the rally in the rotunda have at it, you can pre schedule a meeting time with your senator or Rep before this date its your choice. We would like you to go with a team leader to learn some of the tricks of the trade, proven methods that have worked over the years of trial and error if you have never done anything like this before, I would highly recommend going with a team leader before you go solo. We always need team leaders, would like to have two per a group.

I want to stress this, even if all the Reps you visit with that day, you can’t vote for them, you as a taxpayer still pay their salaries and pension funds and no matter where you live in PA they still represent you and can vote to take away your firearms rights or support them by their votes. You have a Right to talk to any of them, your their boss they are your employee……….just always try to be polite and use this as a means to educate them. Also remind them that no matter where there district is in PA they still work for you and all the Citizens as you employee them and you are their boss, just try to do it a respectful manor same as your boss has to remind you when you are working for them sometimes or if you are self employed you still have to keep your customers happy if you want to stay in business.

We also try to have talking points prepared before hand to give to team leaders, with pro-gun bills numbers to support and bills to oppose along why they should be vote for or against. WE have a very small budget to do all of these things, print material, signs etc we do it on a shoe string budget, we don’t have the mega foundations that give huge amounts to fund our operations like anti-gun groups do. What we do have is small and large coalitions of like minded people and lots of people just like you, activist, willing to stand up and support your rights that others have paid the high price in the past for US to enjoy today. If you look on our past rally you will see some of the names of these groups there that come together on this common cause to support our firearms rights.

The Allegheny County Sportsmen League and several of its member clubs make traveling arrangements for buses and vans to take people from this area for a nominal fee to cover the travel / rental fees. Other coalition groups around the state do this as well and some of you here can post in this thread about getting together to car pool at a future point….

Some general back ground information legislators usually are in session mon, tues, wed unless there is some caucus meeting or some over event they come home to spend time with their families or go back to there home districts to meet with people like you Thursday-Sunday. Most don’t get to their offices in Harrisburg before 10am to do work in their offices from 10-noon or are in caucus / committee meetings during that time. They break for lunch 12-1 in go into session between1-2 sometimes later it varies depending on what is scheduled that day, unfortunately we have to take our chances scheduling this far out as to what will be planed for this day.
So you can see why we time our days the way we do for our events.

I know from Allegheny county its about a four trip one way so buses have to depart before 5am to make 9 -9;30am for event. The event runs from 10am to 3 pm puts people back at there vehicles around 7pm so it’s a long day for US back here in south west PA, lots of people have even longer rides add 1 to 2 ride from Green / Washington county. Get places like Erie County its even worse or north east is a makes for a real long day.

So when you go down to Harrisburg and talk with legislators that have to drive those same distances and take off a week day without pay / vacation day and make a sacrifice because this is that important to you as a volunteer activist it make a large statement to elected Reps. That you care and are watching what they are doing and how they vote, because they really want to get re elected in 2-6 years again and anyone that carries that much about a issue will or might spend their time helping to un elect them if they vote for taking away your firearms rights, that’s the true power gun owners can have in almost any state race if they would just bother to get involved. Firearm Owners Against Crime handles that with its pro-gun voters guides but that is another essay on another topic. Gun owners are the sleeping giant that has the power to decide the outcome of almost any election if we could just get the rest to vote and volunteer only 8 hour once a year could change the political landscape of PA. WE don’t ask for your money, keep it, just donate 8 hours of your time and you can help stop gun control and get pro-gun laws on the books to protect you and your family firearm rights.

I hope between this and you taking the time to read up on last years legislator interactive events covers what goes on and what to expect at this event and why its so important that you take the time to attend.

Checking firearms: there is only 8 lockers and one is always used, security will work with US to secure your firearms.
If you are bring one, you will have to enter through commonwealth ave entrance with fountain next to it. please declare you have a firearm rather than attempting to walk through metal dectors, more detailed on last years link.

http://forum.pafoa.org/political-138...arrisburg.html (Second Amendment Second to None Rally in Harrisburg)

To other ways to hold events like this here is my 2 F.R.N.’s worth

Lots of time people will want to hold a rally when it’s convenient for them on Saturday or outside on the capital steps holding a sign that they hope someone that matters may bother to read. No one that matters is there to see anything, or will probably not read your sign because they are some where else. We all know the media by in large is not our friends on this issue, the anti-gun can get 25 people to show up at its event gets all kinds of media coverage. We can several hundred of people to take a day off work and travel to the capital at their own expense and get almost no media coverage unless someone does something stupid to undermine our events. So doing events when legislator are off days or holding a sign hoping someone may read it doesn’t accomplish anything productive, been there when its be tried before, saw the lack of results first hand. I know from being on the planning and implementations of these legislative lobbying events to know how successful they are from the actual Reps, thanking US for helping to convince many of their colleagues and the anti-gun Reps even trying to cancel a planed session days because they know we are coming to beat their ears on a specific day, they hate US for coming into their office to undermine their attempts to pull a fast one and using guns as a political election tool back in their districts. They want to say they passed a gun control law, who cares IF it works or not “they did something” media will give positive spin coverage. .

If someone wants to do the outside of the steps rally on sat with their own program thing let me know what day it is I will be there, you can do all the long hard planning / background work that I and others do for these types of events. I bring my own sign, sure be a lot easier for me and a lot less work as you will soon discover how hard it really is…. Maybe this is the reason why no pro-gun groups have wasted their effort on this endeavor for many years, but if you want to give it a whirl have at, I won’t stand it your way or plans. It won’t bother me a bit playing arm chair key board commando for a change, like many seem to spend time doing instead doing something that they could be proud to say I help stop this or I helped get this pro-gun bill past into law.

Please consider joining with US on this common cause of protecting all of our firearm rights not just one narrow field of gun ownership for if they can take someone other firearm rights away from them , those same people will sooner or later get around to taking you little particular firearm type you like. Whether its action cowboys, black rifles, skeet and trap, hunting rifles or ranges to shoot at, the anti-gunners want them all gone so no firearm activity is safe from there long term goals.

IF you still want to think aw there is no way they could do that or pass that law, look at some of these bills that were introduced last session (they are dead now till reintroduction this session)read them here….

Show me what firearm ownership type is really safe? The fact that they are lacking the votes shouldn’t be your reason for inaction that fact that someone broke their oaths to support the Constitution and even cosponsored them means they are willing to take them if you are not willing to stop them. Just hoping they won’t pass is how we got the many stupid and ineffective laws that we now have. Don’t wait till you particular firearm sport or type is up for the prohibition list be pro active and fight for your rights that other bleed, gave pieces of their body and other still laid down lives for US to enjoy


Anyway I hope this gives all of you a date April 21, 2009 to plan on taking off to attend this most important event and I hope my short essay give the ones that never attend one in the past a better idea of what goes on and why we do them the way we do……also as soon as I get the official information I will update this here and I am sure PAFOA leadership will also send everyone a email copy plus put a big head liner banners across the top so you can’t miss it. You also should be very proud that PAFOA in also part of the coalition of groups that sponsor this event that protects your right.

In the last several sessions we have been very successful at repealing, replacing, fixing many problems with the UFA, so WE have a proven track record on how we get thing done in the capital that all enjoy now, still there is more that needs to be done, especially my favorite one that I REALLY want this session is a stand your ground law common referred to a castle doctrine, if we could get now defuncted (dead with ending of last session HB 641) sign into law PA would have the best version anywhere in the nation to protect you if you ever are forced to defend yourself or your family from criminal harm.

If you want to help I already have to many assigned task to complete by myself, and other ideas for poster / information packages that people with graphic art / photo shop skills could help out with. Even a professional looking cover sheet or a illustration can be a powerful education / information tool send me a PM if you want to see what you can offer.


WF
 
S

SlackwareRobert

Regular Member
Joined
Jun 10, 2008
Messages
1,338
Location
Alabama, ,
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Sig229 wrote:
Wonderer wrote:
Will be there unless grandchilds birth interferes.
Click to expand...

Why not just have the mother give birth at the rally?

That would be a dream come true if I got older and found out I was born at a Gun Rights rally.

lol Just kidding with you.

I hope he/she is healthy and the mother has an easy birth.
Let us know how they do!
Click to expand...
I do hope she carries a stainless steel pistol for the big event.:celebrate
Might even suggest condition '1' to avoid problems.

Was the closest I ever came to getting fired, when I told my boss I couldn't
go to a mandatory meeting out of state. My wifes due date was that weekend,
and I would not leave town. Did CC though so as to not traumatize the help.

His first act in this world was to flip off everybody.
Came out and curled all but one finger. Definately mine.....:cool:
 
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