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Fox News National Picks Up on OC Debate & Coming to Local Meetup Thursday

hgreen

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The mass shooting in Tucson last weekend is fueling the gun control debate in neighboring California, with an advocacy organization renewing a push to prohibit firearms in restaurants and state lawmakers taking up a bill that would end the state's open-carry law.


They even mention our upcoming Third Thursday dinner:
Arntzen said a similar protest is set for Jan. 20 at a local pizza parlor. She praised the state legislature for taking up the open-carry bill, but said the Brady Campaign would not wait for lawmakers to crack down on guns in restaurants.

We'd love to have as many of you as possible come to our dinner this Thursday to show our support for open carry in the presence of the protesters and sure to be present news crews!

7pm, Manhattan Beach, CA
Please RSVP if you can http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=187044064645007
 

xmattedgex

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They even mention our upcoming Third Thursday dinner:


We'd love to have as many of you as possible come to our dinner this Thursday to show our support for open carry in the presence of the protesters and sure to be present news crews!

7pm, Manhattan Beach, CA
Please RSVP if you can http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=187044064645007
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I would love to go! But I work at 3am and it's an hour and a half drive, if it was Friday night, i'd be there!!
 

Ca Patriot

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Will you guys be open carrying inside and outside the restruant ? I would like to come.
 

ConditionThree

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I realize that we don't share the same strategies, but i think I would be inclined to decentralize...and/or have more than one venue.

This will throw the Bradys off the scent and diffuse the confrontational nature of a counter protest.
 

hgreen

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I realize that we don't share the same strategies, but i think I would be inclined to decentralize...and/or have more than one venue.

This will throw the Bradys off the scent and diffuse the confrontational nature of a counter protest.

"counter protest"?

They are the only protest.

This was not an event designed to stir controversy. We have been having these monthly dinner meet-ups for some time without any problems.

The point of the dinner is to support pro-2A businesses and visit with family and friends.

If the Brady's want to stalk our website and protest, that's their 1st amendment right.

To say or even hint that us gathering as friends and family, at a location pre-approved by the owner, to have dinner together is us protesting or controversial is plain silly.
 

ConditionThree

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"counter protest"?

They are the only protest.

This was not an event designed to stir controversy. We have been having these monthly dinner meet-ups for some time without any problems.

The point of the dinner is to support pro-2A businesses and visit with family and friends.

If the Brady's want to stalk our website and protest, that's their 1st amendment right.

To say or even hint that us gathering as friends and family, at a location pre-approved by the owner, to have dinner together is us protesting or controversial is plain silly.

Unless you can influence the message the media outlets put out there (or the message they recieve from you and your members), you are whatever the media says you are. If they percieve that you are protesting, that is what they will tell their readers and viewers. By publically announcing the venues, you are inviting the Brady Campaign to engage you on equal footing. This creates controversy which immediately after the Tuscon shooting and the filing of AB144, is very attractive to the media. Having the media and the Brady Campaign and the local police attend your monthly meetings changes unloaded open carry from something that ordinary people can do, into something that people percieve as an attempt to achieve a reaction with. What people see on the news is what a hassle it must be to open carry. While to some degree it is, this does nothing to convince new participants to join.

I do not believe inviting the Brady Campaign to your monthly meetings is beneficial. While they draw media attention to the movement, they have the capability of steering public opinion with their emotional and specious arguements. Unless you intend to reciprocate by attending and disrupting their public meetings, I believe these battles represent a war of attrition.
 

cato

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Getting a UOC/BRADY/MEDIA circus mess to occur at businesses is a sure way to get the support of businesses...:rolleyes:

You are playing into Brady's play book by getting the media involved and giving their irrelevance a platform and giving the ban steam which we don't need.
 
Last edited:

xmattedgex

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At first, I figured it would be just fine to piss off the Brady bunch a bit, but after reading some of the comments, I now realize it's probably not the greatest idea. It may hurt the cause more than help.
Maybe you should throw off the Brady bunch and media and make a last minute change of venue.
 

hgreen

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At first, I figured it would be just fine to piss off the Brady bunch a bit, but after reading some of the comments, I now realize it's probably not the greatest idea. It may hurt the cause more than help.
Maybe you should throw off the Brady bunch and media and make a last minute change of venue.

The point is to support pro-2a businesses that we have already pre-arranged this with.

Changing time/location is damn near impossible unless its just you and your buddy. Inevitably someone will show up at the location and wonder where the heck everyone is.

We've had brady at one of our past events, we actually get better results because we get media coverage that brings out tons more people to our cause.

You are welcome to not show up to the event if you disagree.

Its not like they are going to introduce ANOTHER AB144 because we have dinner as a group.
 

Firemark

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I can see both sides of the argument, their are positives and negatives, at this point AB144 is going forward so changing venues and telling people to spread out isnt going to work well at this restaurant, the Bradys will probably get 3-4 people to show like always or maybe they have rallied the troops and can get 6-8 maybe even 10.

I have an alternate suggestion that may be a more powerful message and we can use the media against the Bradys, Simply pack the restauarant with Open Carriers, but only have a few people open carrying.

As an example maybe a dozen or so maybe less maybe more(8-14ish), but every other UOC'r that shows up just show up not carrying and look like average joe citizens(no gun tshirts or hats). And just be ready willing and able to talk to the media about how they feel about being in a restaurant full of lawful gun owners. Have them confornt the Bradys stupidity and fear mongering. The media wants citizens reaction, so stack the restaurant with plain looking citizens willing to call the Bradys outright fear mongerers and stupid. If the media gets loads and loads of supportive people for UOC, they will have a hard time getting someone not wearing a Brady Tshirt to agree with insanity.
 

hgreen

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Jun 4, 2010
Messages
470
Location
Centreville, VA
I can see both sides of the argument, their are positives and negatives, at this point AB144 is going forward so changing venues and telling people to spread out isnt going to work well at this restaurant, the Bradys will probably get 3-4 people to show like always or maybe they have rallied the troops and can get 6-8 maybe even 10.

I have an alternate suggestion that may be a more powerful message and we can use the media against the Bradys, Simply pack the restauarant with Open Carriers, but only have a few people open carrying.

As an example maybe a dozen or so maybe less maybe more(8-14ish), but every other UOC'r that shows up just show up not carrying and look like average joe citizens(no gun tshirts or hats). And just be ready willing and able to talk to the media about how they feel about being in a restaurant full of lawful gun owners. Have them confornt the Bradys stupidity and fear mongering. The media wants citizens reaction, so stack the restaurant with plain looking citizens willing to call the Bradys outright fear mongerers and stupid. If the media gets loads and loads of supportive people for UOC, they will have a hard time getting someone not wearing a Brady Tshirt to agree with insanity.


I like it in theory, getting that to execute without it backfiring is the challenge.
We are not a secretive organization, all our communications are public. The fact that this is even posted here makes it possible for antis to look at this and try to claim any citizen at an event has been staged.

I also don't want to be accused of "staging" events. However, if someone does not feel comfortable OCing at the event but supports the cause and wants to show up unarmed and talk to the media, more power to you.
 

xmattedgex

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The point is to support pro-2a businesses that we have already pre-arranged this with.

Changing time/location is damn near impossible unless its just you and your buddy. Inevitably someone will show up at the location and wonder where the heck everyone is.

Its not like they are going to introduce ANOTHER AB144 because we have dinner as a group.

That is very true
 

Firemark

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Oct 19, 2010
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Location
San Diego
The problem is in order to move a dialogue forward you need opposing views and discussion and national media coverage to spread the word to as many people possible.

The National media mostly sides with Brady, but peoples response and reaction and comments are not supporting that now like 15 years ago, so that wind is slowly changing

Its the people that are in the middle on this issue that need to be persuaded to lean to pro gun side, thats the ones that will respond to fact reason and logic, it will just take time to beat the propoganda out of their heads and to get more local media to influence national media. Just have to keep putting the word out on the street and using social networking to be an effective means of organizing people. Tunisia's revolution is being called the Facebook revolution for a reason.
 
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