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bay area UOC meet and greet part 2

bigtoe416

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Heh...sorry. It was a great turnout. I think everybody who said they were going to come actually showed up. We sat around, cooked on the bbq, and stuffed ourselves. I'm actually pretty disappointed that I ate two of my sausage dog things because boichoi's cake looked damn good and I couldn't possibly eat anymore.

No police showed, nor none were called. Somebody should be posting a picture of the group. I think I heard somebody say the count was 15? TatankaGap and his son showed up at the end to represent South Dakota. We had the bay area mascot, bad_ace's dog. It was good times all around.

We were literally 15 feet from a playground, nobody bothered to ask us about the firearms or anything. A family showed up around the same time TatankaGap did and setup their stuff right next to ours. They had a few kids running around, again no contacts or concerns. All in all, a very successful outing, just how an outing in the United States should be. Armed and peaceable.
 

boichoi

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I just wanted to thank everyone for a wonderful outing. BBQ, drinks, good company and sidearms, what more could a guy want. I was kinda eyeing the plastic owl across the street on the roof wondering if I could make the shot. just kidding.
 

ConditionThree

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Nice looking bunch there.

I will say this, though.

I dont want anyone to take my criticism out of context or construe that if I wanted a say, that I should organize my own meet, but I would like to offer these observations.

With one exception, it looks like the Brotherhood of Manly He-Manness (In fairness, I wasnt there, and dont really know how the population broke down). Out of 14 pictured, I see one woman, no children and three possible minorities. There is very little challenge to bringing a bunch of guys together who share a common interest. This is good thing to make contacts in the movement, but from a media/public relations standpoint, it seems to demonstrate that stereotypes are accurate- that only white middle-aged men are interested in guns.

If the perceptions are to be changed in our unique venue in California, we must challenge this stereotype. This means making special efforts to include the following;

Families: Meaning some combination of Dad, Mom and the kids.

Women: Bringing women into the 2A for the purpose of self-defense is essential.

Minorities: Blacks, Hispanics, Asians, Arabs, and Native Americans- even if they dont subscribe to open carry- Perhaps they have applied for and been denied a LTC concealed.

Handicapped: Those who are wheelchair bound, amputee, multiple amputee, deaf, hearing impaired,... I would even say blind- IIRC there was a man back east who was denied a LTC because he couldnt see.

Gay, Lesbian, and Transgendered: Figuratively, the holy cow of protected classesin the bay area- this is theanti-gun legislatorsKryptonite. It has beenforwarded before that a pro-2A gay is better able to expose a politicians hypocrisy in this argument over whether we should bear arms for self-defense.

We will have be proactive in our outreach- it simply has to go beyond the forum we have here. This means approaching neighbors, friends, family, coworkers- It also means targeting groups of people we may not naturally come into contact with. This way, when media does arrive, it is not so easy to paint our movement here in California as an exclusively middle aged, white male, racist, homophobe group.
 

TatankaGap

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There were two youth (or is it youtes?), including my 3.5 yr old son - one observation is that we seem to better at the guns, ammo, holsters part then we are at actual food, coffee, and hospitality -

Agree, an armed female, minority and gay presence would be most appreciated and would add the diversity that exists among responsible gun owners -

Someone mentioned Pink Pistols on this forum, maybe a future event could coordinate with them -

Some other kids did come by and played with my son and no one was scared away by all the armed dudes....

Many thanks to those who organized; I was pleased to be able to attend due to nice scheduling coincidences - :dude:
 

coolusername2007

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Nice picture. Looks like it wasa lot of fun. Can't see that many guns though,maybe three or four. Gotta get that pistol money shot. And what's with the dog? Where's his sidearm?! :cool:
 

brad9point0

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ConditionThree wrote:
Nice looking bunch there.


Gay, Lesbian, and Transgendered: Figuratively, the holy cow of protected classes in the bay area- this is the anti-gun legislators Kryptonite. It has been forwarded before that a pro-2A gay is better able to expose a politicians hypocrisy in this argument over whether we should bear arms for self-defense.

We will have be proactive in our outreach- it simply has to go beyond the forum we have here. This means approaching neighbors, friends, family, coworkers- It also means targeting groups of people we may not naturally come into contact with. This way, when media does arrive, it is not so easy to paint our movement here in California as an exclusively middle aged, white male, racist, homophobe group.

There were 2 Gays there ;-)
 

bigtoe416

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brad9point0 wrote:
There were 2 Gays there ;-)
It'd be nice if this was said without the "just kidding" emoticon. I could see this as being taken as an inside joke amongst those who attended or an actual claim that two of the attendees were gay. It does point out the fact that people can be homosexual and you'd not be able to tell in a picture.

As far as the money shot goes, a quite a few of us were armed. I was, dirty koala, bad_ace, brad9point0, tall_tree, and boichoi. Not sure if I missed anybody else.
 

bad_ace

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TatankaGap wrote:
one observation is that we seem to better at the guns, ammo, holsters part then we are at actual food, coffee, and hospitality -

Sorry TatankaGap, Mapquest set you up for failure :)
We had a huge spread of food, drinks and desserts but you missed out ;)

Glad you could make it all the way from South Dakota.
 

Essex1984

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bigtoe416 wrote:
brad9point0 wrote:
There were 2 Gays there ;-)
It'd be nice if this was said without the "just kidding" emoticon. I could see this as being taken as an inside joke amongst those who attended or an actual claim that two of the attendees were gay. It does point out the fact that people can be homosexual and you'd not be able to tell in a picture.

As far as the money shot goes, a quite a few of us were armed. I was, dirty koala, bad_ace, brad9point0, tall_tree, and boichoi. Not sure if I missed anybody else.
Yep pretty sure I was carrying also, front row far left.

This was a great meet up with some good people. Food was good and the aside from a mild sunburn I think most people enjoyed it.

People have made some comments with regards to who we need to have show up, which was almost a bit insulting to the ones who drove 1-2 hours toshow up for a meet and don’t seem to be anything otherthen a "generic white male".It’sfantasticthat people would like to get minorities to show up but unless i missed something this is still very grassroots and there for we are far from the point where we can "get" anyone who isn’t generally interested in open carry to show up.

This was one of the larger meets we have had in the "Bay Area" and I can't wait for the next one.
 

unobvs

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bigtoe:

I received notification of a PM from you. Unfortunately and embarassingly, I do not know how to find it on the forum! Please provide instructions.

Thanks
 

bad_ace

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Called SGT. H. Tran (SWAT member/family counselor/mental health assessor) this afternoon to get his email address. I wanted to send him the above snap shot of peaceful, armed citizens enjoying beautiful Milpitas. After giving me his email address he said I didn't need to send the photo, he had seen it and that they were aware of the meeting :) Add Milpitas PD to the departments that read the forums.

My hat is off to them if they knew of the picnic and chose not to make a scene. :D
 
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