imported post
Color me surprised here in this reaction to Mike.
Here is what Mike actually stated:
Mike wrote:
I think I saw that interview and thought Alan's comments were pretty balanced and that he said something like that the people were within their rights though perhaps not politically smart. He then went on to make fun of the Brady's guy's statements pretty good.
My personal view is that open carrying guns, let alone long guns, only as a way of expressing your opposition to health care policy proposals risks garbling the message and confusing the target audience.
Open carry as a form of expressive conduct re non-gun rights issues does not help us in my opinion.
ricecountyrefugee stated:
ricecountyrefugee wrote:
And the name of this forum is OpenCarry.org ? Mike, I think that you're confused about what the Second Amendment says and I disagree with your statement above.
You realize that Mike is one of the two founders and leaders of OCDO, right? Telling Mike that he's confused about what the 2nd amendment means is about the same thing as telling John Adams that he doesn't know what the constitution means. Open carry is the purest form of the 2nd amendment.
KBCraig wrote:
I believe those who are quitting SAF either misunderstood Gottlieb, or are mischaracterizing what he said.
He said that he didn't believe the rifle was "politically smart". He didn't condemn "Chris", and he supported the right to carry the rifle. He merely opined that it might not be a good political strategy.
I disagree with Gottlieb on that point, but it hardly makes him any less pro-gun.
I agree with the above comment. Let me remind all of you that this isn't just purely a public relations battle. It's a long term legal and political battle. As one of my fellow gunnies over on Calguns has pointed out repeatedly:
We 'eat our own' because we're trying to stop stupidity.
One black rifle incident and we might lose Kennedy from the Heller 5 majority. Their words do speak louder than actions.
Period.
Btw, someone in this thread stated that Chris B (the AR-15 carrier in Phoenix) did not speak about the health insurance bill. This is absolutely false. Chris B. DID speak out against the proposals, and did so in the debate repeatedly with others who did confront him in the protest outside.
I also point out, once again, that the AR-15 carrying was masterminded by Ernest Hancock, a supporter of the Viper Reserves, who's core leadership was arrested by the feds for plotting bombings of federal buildings throughout Arizona. Great folks there, just the people we want to be associated with, right?
Alan Gottlieb was right about it not being politically smart in this particular circumstance. The open gun carrying at town hall events and getting into yelling matches with supporters of the health insurance bill is actually starting to radicalize them to the point where they're willing to push even harder and not accept anything less than the current proposal. Open carry of firearms purely by opponents of the health insurance bill during the town halls and outside of the presidential events may lead to some unintended POLITICAL consequences down the line, such as the greater likely hood that the bill will actually pass, and some congressional and state legislative attempts to ban guns outside of the presidential security zones, regardless of the White House and the Secret Services statement that the President was never in any danger.
All it takes is
ONE incident of gunfire at one of these events and A) you can pretty much bet that the health care bill WILL pass in less than 1 week and B) We can look forward to the knives of law enforcement putting an inordinate focus on all of us. Not to mention the eventually Legislative consequences, which SAF, which some of you think "sold us out", will have to fight in the courts.
Just to piss the ones threatening to "terminate their memberships with SAF", I'm going to start donating additional money to SAF to cancel out Idaho Cowboy's and Para_Org's cancellations, specifically to fund their lawsuit against DC's carry law, and their lawsuits in California against may-issue and the handgun roster. Zumbo'ing Alan isn't going to work, as he did NOTHING wrong other than offend the effete sensibilities of people who would throw even a founder of this site under the bus if they sniff the slightest bit of impure unorthodoxy.
I swear, it's almost like arguing with a dining room table here sometimes. :what:
