Guns And Garbage - Lexington Open Carry Event

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The Central Kentucky Campaign For Liberty has adopted the two miles of Richmond Road just outside New Circle Road as part of the Adopt-A-Highway program. We'll be open carrying next Saturday, April 11th, 2009 from 2:00 to 4:00 PM while picking up litter on the side of the road.

Please come and join us in promoting Open Carry in particular and our right to keep and bear arms.

Please tell all the pro-2A people you know and ask them to tell their gun rights friends. This needs a lot of grassroots word-of-mouth advertising to succeed.

Please DO NOT contact the media. We'll be taking care of that. I have a plan that I hope will ensure the best possible media coverage, and if you tip them off my plan won't work.

For more info (please check out the FAQ):

http://www.GunsAndGarbage.com

Here's the promotional flier:

http://gunsandgarbage.com/GunsAndGarbage-Flier-2009-1.pdf

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Almost a day later, 25 views, and no comments?

I'd hoped that Open Carry folks would be all over this, and anxious to not only participate but also to promote it to others.

Did I say something wrong?

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Please don't take this personally. I know that I'm heading up to Indianapolis that day with my bride to take in a Pacers/Pistons game. Hmmm, game and weekend away with my bride vs. picking up trash. I know what I'm gonna do! ;-) :celebrate

Seriously, I hope your event is a success. First time I read it I thought to myself: "What a great positive way for open carriers to engage the broader community." Way to go!

Reg

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OK. MgoBlue gets a pass.

What's everyone else's excuse?

Open carry as a personal choice changes people's opinions, one at a time, little by little. A big Open Carry event like Guns And Garbage can get some rare positive media coverage and educate a lot of people.

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Got other plans, sorry. If I get done in time I can run bye there. If not, I'll watch for you on the news! Which station??

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KY_CCDW wrote:

Got other plans, sorry. If I get done in time I can run bye there. If not, I'll watch for you on the news! Which station??

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It was very short notice. Part of that was intentional. This is obviously completely legal, but I didn't want anyone opposed to gun rights to have weeks to hear about this and mount an opposition.

Which station? ALL STATIONS!

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i just had a chance to read what has been going on lately. i believe that i will have to work saturday :cuss:.if i don't i am really going to try to make it . i think that it is a great opportunity to educate the public.

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Figures, this comes up right near where I live and I'm on the road right now!

Good luck everyone!

Cy

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Hey Cy,

Not to fret. We'll do these about four times a year. If you're interested, there will be other opportunities.

But the first one is special. :celebrate

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I'm there!

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Pictures and a synopsis of the first Guns And Garbage:

http://gunsandgarbage.com/KY-LEX-20090411

langzaiguy - did you make it out?

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Good job Liberty. The pics looked great and it looks like you guys did your community and the cause good!

-adamsesq

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I did! I was the guy on the motorcycle. I would have been there earlier, but there were two accidents on New Circle! Were you the guy giving the safety talk?

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langzaiguy wrote:

I did! I was the guy on the motorcycle. I would have been there earlier, but there were two accidents on New Circle! Were you the guy giving the safety talk?

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I think you may have been the only person there I didn't know, and when you arrived, I thought that might have been you.

Yeah, I was the guy doing the orientation, such as it was.

This was definitely a learning experience.

I hope you'll come to the next Guns And Garbage, and maybe we can talk some.

I agree with the concept of not alarming anyone or implying that guns are dangerous by featuring guns on a caution sign, but after having done one of these events and being completely ignored by the media and having people drive by and pay no attention whatsoever, if we don't do something to force people to realize what's happening, all we're doing is picking up litter. Last Saturday, open carry did nothing but make my pants fall down as I repeatedly bent over to pick up other people's trash.

I discouraged people from bringing large pistols or any long guns to the first event. I didn't want to scare anybody because the point was to present gun ownership in a reasonable and responsible manner, but I don't think the first Guns And Garbage presented gun ownership in any significant manner. If people knew we were open carrying firearms I'd say our work was done and I'd be happy, but people didn't know we were carrying at all. The message was almost completely lost. I don't want to do something outrageous just to be noticed, but we are not going to continue to be ignored. I may be forced to up the ante and maybe make a Kydex thigh holster for my PLR-16.

The media apparently won't cover this event. Something must be done. I think we'll try some sort of roadside sign that has a picture of a pistol. People ignore text, so I think a picture is needed so there's something out of the ordinary to get their attention. I'd bet that's why the Oregon Open Carry litter pickup group displays their sign.

The point is to make a point. If we're ignored, there's no point in having an open carry litter pickup.

I just whipped up a sign. What do you guys think about this?

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Liberty4Ever wrote:

langzaiguy wrote:

I did! I was the guy on the motorcycle. I would have been there earlier, but there were two accidents on New Circle! Were you the guy giving the safety talk?

Click to expand...

I agree with the concept of not alarming anyone or implying that guns are dangerous by featuring guns on a caution sign, but after having done one of these events and being completely ignored by the media and having people drive by and pay no attention whatsoever, if we don't do something to force people to realize what's happening, all we're doing is picking up litter. Last Saturday, open carry did nothing but make my pants fall down as I repeatedly bent over to pick up other people's trash.

I discouraged people from bringing large pistols or any long guns to the first event. I didn't want to scare anybody because the point was to present gun ownership in a reasonable and responsible manner, but I don't think the first Guns And Garbage presented gun ownership in any significant manner. If people knew we were open carrying firearms I'd say our work was done and I'd be happy, but people didn't know we were carrying at all. The message was almost completely lost. I don't want to do something outrageous just to be noticed, but we are not going to continue to be ignored. I may be forced to up the ante and maybe make a Kydex thigh holster for my PLR-16.

The media apparently won't cover this event. Something must be done. I think we'll try some sort of roadside sign that has a picture of a pistol. People ignore text, so I think a picture is needed so there's something out of the ordinary to get their attention. I'd bet that's why the Oregon Open Carry litter pickup group displays their sign.

The point is to make a point. If we're ignored, there's no point in having an open carry litter pickup.

I just whipped up a sign. What do you guys think about this?

Click to expand...

1. "I agree with the concept of not ALARMing anyone or implying that guns are dangerous by featuring guns on a caution sign,BUT..........

2. "if we don't do something toFORCE people to realize "

3. "I didn't want toSCARE anybody because the point was to present gun ownership in a reasonable and responsible manner, BUT

4. " I don't want to do something OUTRAGEOUS just to be noticed,BUT "

5. " I may be forced to up the ante and maybe make a Kydex thigh holster for my PLR-16."


When I first read about this event I found it very interesting but I hesitated from getting involved because I didn't know anything about your group or how itchooses to publicly represent itself. I wanted to wait to see how the first event was handled. I truly do not mean anydisrespect to you or group. I do however disagree that just because the event did not get the attention you were looking for the first time it occured that you should want to ALARM, FORCE, SCARE, or be OUTRAGEOUS to an unknowing or uneducated ( infirearms issues ) public. I really believe quite the opposite to be true. I think the if the public consistanly sees a group do good things they form an opinion that they are a good group of people. Then one day they find out that the group they see all the time picking up trash or doing other public services is a pro 2nd Amendment group they may transfer the thought the "good people" to the cause the people are trying to raise awareness of. I just thought I would give my opinion and reason to why I personally didn't come to the first event. Take it for what it's worth and good luck to you in the future.

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Yeah, I agree with Mellio. I think we should do these on a regular basis. I mean, noticed or not, we did some good--granted that our mission isn't to clean the Earth.

I wouldn't try to talk you out of a thigh holster, but I don't exactly think we need to up the scare factor.

I think what would really do some good is if we march in parades and have booths open as fairs. The summer is near and there are tons of random festivals all over the state.

For me, the event was a success and I was very glad I came. True, it could have been more successful with more publicity. Good publicity is hard to come by (especially compared to bad publicity).

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Liberty4ever,

How do you know that passerby's didn't notice or were ignoring you? Would it occur to you that there may have been some that saw you folks out there with guns on your hips, and may have told others about what they saw? Word of mouth will spread over time. Continue doing what you are doing and be patient. The last thing you want to do is come off looking like a bunch of juveniles jumping up and down trying to get the attention of the adults. Be the adults that are just doing something for the community......while armed.

Good people do good things, not for the attention, but because it's the right thing to do. Others will notice, whither you know it or not.

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Thanks again to langzaiguy for coming out for Guns And Garbage. He was the one person from Open Carry to participate. There were 15 people from the liberty community there.

I made two trips to each of the seven Lexington gun stores the week prior to the event and all of the gun stores agreed to provide 9" X 11" of counter space for a stack of Guns And Garbage fliers for one week to promote this Open Carry event. Two of the stores actually did it. One other store did after I returned and asked about it and they were shamed because the stack of fliers was on a counter in the back of the store with a box on top of it. Nobody attended Guns And Garbage because they saw a flier in a gun store, so that was surprisingly not a good way to promote the event.

Frankly, I was very disappointed by the lack of enthusiasm and the lack of participation by the gun community. I realize that I've been mostly lurking on this forum and people don't know me well enough to flock to an event like this, and I didn't promote it very well, but I thought that gun owners are highly motivated right now because they see another gun ban coming. I thought this could be a catalyst that would generate some viral marketing within the gun community, but it looks like the activity is largely restricted to panic buying of guns and ammo and belly aching among ourselves. I thought more gun owners would want to engage in an activity that would generate positive public opinion to counter the political and social forces arrayed against gun owners, but I guess not.

I also realize that because I'm not well known here, there is no way you guys would know my sense of humor. I'm not really advocating doing outrageous stuff to get attention. I went out of my way to discourage that sort of behavior in the inaugural event. Did you read the FAQ on the GunsAndGarbage.com website?

I'm the guy who tries to talk gun owners out of open carrying in businesses where the owner has a policy against open carry. We can tell the business owner that we won't spend any money in their store, but our right to bear arms doesn't trump their property rights. My goal is always to present gun owners as rational, responsible, law abiding citizens.

The Oregon Open Carry group has been doing regular Open Carry litter pickups for quite a while, and they have some signs that let the public know what's going on so they understand something of the gun rights issue being demonstrated. I'm willing to learn from the Oregon experience. Picking up trash and not educating anybody about gun rights is no fun and people won't keep doing it if we aren't accomplishing anything to protect our right to keep and bear arms.

If you have any comments pertaining to this event, I'd love to hear them... preferably while we're both out there picking up litter. I'm not saying you aren't entitled to an opinion while sitting at home typing on your computer, but I am saying that you'll have an informed opinion if you participate in the event, and your comments will carry a lot more weight.



There are no gains without pains.
- Benjamin Franklin



All that is necessary for evil to succeed is that good men do nothing.
- Edmund Burke