Lobby Day 3/15 - Empty Holster Rally in Raleigh!!!

McDonald's on Western is fine.
I've OCed there hundreds of times.

I may drive up there for this.
It would good to finally meet Dreamer, as I did what he is doing at ECU for about 4 years.

The Five Guys mentioned by "Sultan62" sounds like a plan to me...

I have class at 0830 but live on campus so I can make if there is lunch on Western/Gorman or Hillsborough

Dreamer, my point in posting that is this. With the specific exception of educational property, NC seems to define "grounds" as being outside of a vehicle walking around in the parking lot or on the grounds. "Grounds" is mentioned in the uniformity, but they also specifically exempt vehicles. I would completely understand not wanting to push the issue. It seems that the state would have a pretty weak case since they do not specifically address vehicle carry. YMMV.

Pulling up on google, there seems to be some parking around N Blount and E Jones. Only a block or two away. I have not idea if it's public. What I can tell you though, is there appears to be absolutely no parking on the legislative building property itself. Or at least the block that it occupies.

chiefjason said:

Pulling up on google, there seems to be some parking around N Blount and E Jones. Only a block or two away. I have not idea if it's public. What I can tell you though, is there appears to be absolutely no parking on the legislative building property itself. Or at least the block that it occupies.

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OK, I didn't know that. The State Legislatures/General Assemblies of MD, VA, WV, and PA all have parking lots adjacent to the buildings, on property that is considered part of their respective "Capital complexes". I assumed that NC might be the same...

Dreamer said:

OK, I didn't know that. The State Legislatures/General Assemblies of MD, VA, WV, and PA all have parking lots adjacent to the buildings, on property that is considered part of their respective "Capital complexes". I assumed that NC might be the same...

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Contact Jeff Rau at legislativeteam@grnc.org Our legislative team almost lives at the GA when they are in session. He can tell you about parking.

Downtown Raleigh has several public parking decks. I know there is one near the Progress Energy Performing Arts Center. It probably about a half mile from the capital. I believe they charge $7 per day or something close to that amount.

Did we decide where to each lunch? I get out of class at 1100 but need to make it to the city council meeting at 1300

We're meeting for lunch at Five Guys in North Hills at 12:15pm. Cya there.

So how'd it go?

Sorry for the late response. Dreamer and I got back, and we were both exhausted.

Yesterday didn't go as well as we were hoping it would. All the reps were either in meetings, in committees, or were busy in some way. We dropped off some literature, but thats about all we were able to do. Seems like we just picked a bad day to venture to the capital is all.

We did meet up with some of the GRNC professionals, and they all seemed like really nice people. One of them tried to get us introduced to see some of the reps, but, since they were all busy, we couldn't get anything effectively done.

Dreamer made us some business cards, and we dropped a few of those off with a few reps, so hopefully they might call us back. We also had some literature that David Childs (NC SCCC guy) gave us, and I gave a copy to McLawhorn (my rep), who isn't very gun friendly - hopefully we can make her 'see the light'.

There also was this really cute redhead, but she apparently had this 'Page' sticker/badge on her (which I didn't see), and Dreamer had to explain to me that a page is in high school, and is underage :shocker:... damn....

We'll definitely have to try and make another trip out there sometime, and hopefully not land on a committee day.

We broke for lunch at about 11-1130, and went to 5 guys in Raleigh. Dreamer and I figured that the politicians availability will only get worse, so we came home, and we promptly took a nap, lol. We both had to work till midnight last night too, so that didn't help either.

We'll try again sometime, and maybe we can bring more people with us.

Sorry to hear it didn't go well. It probably had a lot to do with the late notice.

Make sure to let us know the next time you plan one!

"Lobby Day"s are great (there is strength in numbers) but first you must establish credibility. Getting to know your legislators is an on-going, personal, one-on-one event. It can be a laborious, time consuming task, but well worth the effort.

Call and make an appointment to meet with those that will recognize you as a constituent and make it grow from there.

Build the confidence/report level enough and they will come to you for information.

Grape has a good point. Perhaps next time, we should contact the reps ahead of time, and set appointment times so we're already on their calendars...

This event was sort of last-minute, and we didn't prepare very well for it, at least with regards for giving the legislators any sort of "heads up". We did have a permit for an "empty holster rally", and we had plenty of literature to hand out to people, but we did sort of drop the ball on trying to pre-arrange for meeting with the reps...

Next time we'll know. Any other advice that Grape and people in VA have would be greatly appreciated--you guys seem to have this thing down to a science...

elixin77 said:

There also was this really cute redhead, but she apparently had this 'Page' sticker/badge on her (which I didn't see), and Dreamer had to explain to me that a page is in high school, and is underage :shocker:... damn....

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Sometimes keeping "exilin77" focused and "on mission" can be a full-time job... :lol:

Each state's circumstances are different.

In Virginia, Martin Luther King day (3rd Mon. in Jan.) is the traditional Lobby Day.

Legislators that are sensitive to voter input make themselves and/or their staff available - it is not just a gun rights lobby day. All different flavors of groups jostle for the attention of the politicians.

Because VCDL has been doing this so long now, we are able to turn out hundreds of members and solicit the support of like minded groups. Virtually every legislator's office is visited (even the antis) and packets of printed material is left for their review. Nothing beats face-to face time though.

We know ahead of time, a year in advance, when the next Lobby Day will be. We already have the permit for the 2012 rally that accompanies the lobbying efforts. Gives plenty of time for us to prepare and get other groups and people on board.

Would really be a good thing to get GRNC ( http://www.grnc.org/ ) involved, hunters, target shooters and even motor cycle clubs which btw are very active in Va.

You've done a good thing getting this started, now keep it rolling.

Did I mention that we can OC or CC in the General Assembly Building? :lol:

Still the biggest change IMHO will not originate from lobbying but at the ballot box.