imported post
How to set up a meet?
1) Call friend/s.
2) Set time and location.
3) Show up at set time and location.
4) Meet.
Adding open carry to this 'how to' changes the dynamic quite a bit. You have all the legal issues to address. The venue is dictated by school zones, the number of participants,and the permissiveness of businesses of open carry.
Personally, I think going big at single venues is both a logistical nightmare and defeats the principle of
desensitization. These large events do get media, however the sheer numbers of participants is not really a natural display.
One to five cyclists in one location is 'ordinary practice'- Fifty to one-hundred or morecyclists is a street clogging
'Critical Mass' protest. I can see where some businesses and communities are having some trouble digesting the open carry philosophy.
Do not mistake my view about numbers- Im not saying that if you have 100 or more participants that you shouldnt have an event. I'm just saying that those 100 open carriers would create a greater impact in a mass eventwith multiple venues in the same city. Instead of picking one venue where it is likely that participants could create congestion and consternation, I would recommend 20 or more locations with small groups doing ordinary things- eating at a restaurant, going to the theater, shopping for groceries, having a BBQ in a park, and yes- drinking coffee at Starbucks. (I have other concepts that I have shared privately with others that I wont reveal here.)If you have extraordinary numbers, its important to diffuse the effecteither by spreading them out, ororganize them for community service.
These are two seperate strategies;
the firstis
to implodeLEApolicy demandingofficers to respond to
every report of MWAG and (e) check
every participant. By distributing your activists across a community at seperate or 'roving' venues, it will stretch law enforcements ability to react to the activity in the way they have in the past. If they should get multiple calls for MWAG in different areas of the community they will have to make a choice- seek out the open carriers to contact them for an (e) check (and then try to keep track of with whom they had contact when the call has been cleared) or reprioritize their calls according to the true threat level. Repeated with great enough frequency, we will see a change in how calls are handled- Dispatchers will have to start asking the proper questions from reporting parties- instead of rolling officers for a non-crime, they will need to ask with specificity what the reporting party has observed...ie:
Are they touching the firearm? Are they pointing the gun at anyone? Are they rude, angry, or threatening? Is there someone in danger?
The second strategy is
to remove the ego or 'showboat' from the public'sperception of open carriers. It is much more difficult to say that OC'rs are doing it all for the attention when they clean up a community park, or donate toys for needy children, or raise funds for diabetes, cancer, or a burn center.
I think both of these strategies could gradually initiate some important changes, as the memospublished by various departments have educated the police have. But it will take repetition, exposure, and time.
