Open Carry Litter Pickup This Sunday In Lexington

It must be spring! Time for an open carry litter pickup!

This is an officially sanctioned Adopt-A-Highway litter pickup event. It only takes an hour or two... and you can open carry! We'll have a group of people open carrying in Lexington, the heart of the anti-gun nanny state in mostly firearms friendly Kentucky. It's a great opportunity to exercise your rights (use 'em or lose 'em!), do some good for the community by picking up some trash, do a little public relations for the pro-gun community, and let others know that some people still care about individual liberty.

This is a very casual event. Stay as long as you like. Do as little or as much as you like. It's easy work and a good excuse to get a little exercise. It's a fun event.

Invite your friends!

I'll be making a YouTube video. Let me know if you don't want to be in it.

More details can be found at our open carry litter pickup website:
http://www.GunsAndGarbage.com

Richmond Road, mile marker 9.00 to 11.00
From Lexington Mall out past Eagle Creek Library
Meet in the parking lot behind Perkin's Restaurant for the mandatory orientation
If you'd like to visit afterward, we can wash up and have dinner at Perkin's.
Perkin's Restaurant is on Richmond Road, just inside New Circle Road in Lexington,
in Lexington Mall, next to Home Depot.

If you've never done this before, check out the Frequently Asked Questions:
http://gunsandgarbage.com/faq

Check out the pictures and description of the first Guns and Garbage:
http://gunsandgarbage.com/KY-LEX-20090411

Sponsored by our friends at the Central Kentucky Campaign For Liberty.
http://www.meetup.com/ronpaul-146

PS - Based on my personal experience at the 3rd open carry litter pickup, I would advise NOT eating way too much at the Indian buffet immediately prior to this event.

The silence in this thread is deafening.

This is the OPEN CARRY forum, right?

The weather looks a bit sketchy tomorrow, with rain in the morning and a possibility of showers in the afternoon. Hopefully it blows through early and we have clear skies for the litter pickup.

2:00 PM - 4:00 PM Sunday, March 20th, 2011
Perkin's Restaurant Lexington - Parking Lot
Directions: http://tinyurl.com/GunsAndGarbage

Come out and support your right to open carry!

if i hadnt just bought a new house and spent everydime i have on dozer work id be there for sure. we oughta try something like this in boyd county area if neone is interested, i work for DOT so i could get vests for everyone, it would be a good thing to get out because very few people around here have ne idea of Kentucky's wonderful gun laws, or lack of.

KYGlockster said:

if i hadnt just bought a new house and spent everydime i have on dozer work id be there for sure. we oughta try something like this in boyd county area if neone is interested, i work for DOT so i could get vests for everyone, it would be a good thing to get out because very few people around here have ne idea of Kentucky's wonderful gun laws, or lack of.

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That would be a great idea! Does anyone do the Central Park in Ashland or is that covered by the city? Being that we had that issue over the city parks sometime back, that would definitely be a prime location, if no one has it.

The official Adopt-A-Highway program is run by the Kentucky Transportation Cabinet. You should be able to do an online search and find the Adopt-A-Highway contact info. As such, only state roads are up for adoption. Today, we did a two mile stretch of Route 25, which is Georgetown Road on the other side of Lexington, but it's Richmond Road on the stretch we did.

That's not to say you can't have an open carry litter pickup without the blessings of the Commonwealth of Kentucky. If you wanted to have an open carry litter pickup in Ashland's Central Park, you could just meet there and pick up the trash. There probably isn't much trash in Central Park, compared to the state highways, where it's no trouble to fill a pickup truck with trash from a two mile stretch of highway.

I'm glad we're participating in the official Adopt-A-Highway program. Here in Leftington, there is the potential for some hassles by the police if we just showed up on THEIR road and started picking up the trash. You know the drill. "You're causing a distraction to drivers." "It isn't safe." "You need to leave right now for your own safety." "If you don't leave, you'll be charged with disobeying lawful orders, trespassing, resisting arrest...."

By participating in the Kentucky Adopt-A-Highway program, we can step out of the way and let the county government fight the state government, and I can guess who would win that battle.

The open carry events can be controversial. Having the state on your side is a big help, IMO. I resent asking Kentucky for permission to pick up litter on the side of the road, but participation in the Adopt-A-Highway program does have advantages. You also get a couple of nifty Adopt-A-Highway signs with your organization's name on them.

One of our group open carried his Colt AR-15 today, slung over his shoulder. Plenty of police drove by as we were picking up litter. I counted three where I was, and that's how many the AR guy counted too. Nobody said a word to him. I was a bit surprised. A pistol on your hip is easy to miss when someone is driving by at 45 MPH, but it's hard to miss an AR-15. I believe the police have a policy of ignoring our open carry picnics in the park and telling anyone calling the police with the panicky "Man With A Gun" call that unless they're threatening someone, open carry in the park is legal. If that's the case, the police and the public are getting the much needed education. After today's event with the AR slung over the shoulder of a guy picking up trash on a busy road in Lexington, I think the police must have a "don't mess with them" policy for the open carry litter pickups, too. Now if they'd just adopt the same attitude toward individuals open carrying in Joseph Beth Booksellers....

Some very good advise there Liberty! Words to work and live by if/when we ever pull together a garbage clean-up over here. The reason I mentioned central Park in Ashland was that it was seeming a hard sell issue and being that one of the main reasons for an OC clean-up is to promote OC, among many others, I thought that maybe it would be a good start. But after reading your post, I see that while it would get the attention, it would be better to go through the Adopt-A-Highway folks so as to have the State on our side IF something happened.

It still seems goofy to me to ask permission from the state to pick up litter. Philosophically, I resent it. Practically, membership does have its privileges.

I hope you guys do get an open carry litter pickup going in Ashland. If you do, and you'd like to glom onto our website to help promote it online, please send me the details via a private message and I'll put your event on the calendar on the home page of GunsAndGarbage.com.

If you're looking for an open carry event in Central Park, you might consider an open carry picnic. They're much more popular, because face it, picnics are more fun than picking up garbage on the side of the road. However, open carry picnics are more controversial outside the pro-gun community. The anti-gun nuts can be very shrill about an open carry event in the park. There are children there! Oh noes! Would somebody puhleeeeeeeze think of the children?!? In addition to that brand of hysteria, you guys might also have a legal issue. Please check the laws pertaining to guns near schools and make certain you're not too close to the elementary school that's on Central Avenue. It would be very bad to have a pro-gun event turn into an anti-gun event. You could also have some bureaucratic issues similar to what we encountered when establishing Lexington's open carry picnics. The park is owned and operated by the city, and while they are prohibited by KRS 65.870 from preventing open carry in the park, the city can enforce a bunch of rules and regulations that make it financially impractical for us to publicly promote the open carry picnics. We have a negotiated stalemate. I can't advertise the open carry picnics via any public means, so invitation is by private email to my gun buddies. I have a lot of gun buddies, and I make new friends all the time in the local gun community.

I ran out of time today (actually yesterday, given that it's 2:30 AM), but I hope to edit and post the video of Sunday's open carry litter pickup soon. I'll put a link in this thread when the video is online.

I'm assuming this event happened happened this past Sunday which means I missed it do to having to work, do you by anychance plan on having another in the central part of the state in the near future?

Sorry you missed the last open carry litter pickup. Yes, we did have it and the weather was very good for the time of the year - a gorgeous 70F and sunny, despite the weather forecast on Friday, Saturday and Sunday predicting Rain on Sunday. They couldn't even get it right on the same day.

There is an advantage to planning these events with a bit less than a weeks' advance notice. You can't guarantee it won't rain, but you can get better chances of nicer temperatures by projecting longer term warming and cooling trends. I organized a shoot at Knob Creek Range on Saturday a few weeks in advance, and it was cold. We got in a lot of shooting, and when we were almost finished it rained, and by the time we were packed up and ready to go, the sleet had turned into snow!

The general plan is to have an open carry picnic in Lexington in April, and another open carry litter pickup in May.

If anyone would like to get an email notice of central Kentucky open carry events, send me a private message with your email address.

If we don't do something to protect our rights, we'll lose them. Open carry is legal in Philadelphia, but it's apparently one of those "virtual rights" that doesn't really exist any more. The first five minutes of this audio are chilling... and infuriating. A concealed weapons permit holder may open carry in Pennsylvania, but Philadelphia police tell a guy he is not allowed to open carry... among a lot of other cursing, intimidation and threatening by the police.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z-vUYeJXSrA

Liberty4Ever said:

If we don't do something to protect our rights, we'll lose them. Open carry is legal in Philadelphia, but it's apparently one of those "virtual rights" that doesn't really exist any more. The first five minutes of this audio are chilling... and infuriating. A concealed weapons permit holder may open carry in Pennsylvania, but Philadelphia police tell a guy he is not allowed to open carry... among a lot of other cursing, intimidation and threatening by the police.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z-vUYeJXSrA

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This is outrageous and horrifying! It's definitely a good thing that he had all of this on tape. The audio is really good, possibly too good. Can this be verified? If all of this is legit, this guy will own the city and new case law will be written.

I wonder how this ended that night and I wonder what he has done in reference to this action.

neuroblades said:

This is outrageous and horrifying! It's definitely a good thing that he had all of this on tape. The audio is really good, possibly too good. Can this be verified? If all of this is legit, this guy will own the city and new case law will be written.

I wonder how this ended that night and I wonder what he has done in reference to this action.

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yeah, it's legit. There's 4 parts to it. He's a member here and a member on the PAFOA.org forum. There's a HUGE megathread on the PA forum. There are a couple threads on OCDO about it. It ended with them giving him his property back and releasing him.

http://forum.pafoa.org/open-carry-144/126083-arrested-philadelphia-police-open-carry.html

neuroblades said:

This is outrageous and horrifying! It's definitely a good thing that he had all of this on tape. The audio is really good, possibly too good. Can this be verified? If all of this is legit, this guy will own the city and new case law will be written.

I wonder how this ended that night and I wonder what he has done in reference to this action.

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I doubt the victim will get any remuneration. There is what's right, and then there's the law. And even when operating within the letter of the law, if public opinion isn't on your side....

In fact, I think the danger is, cities like Philadelphia are already so far gone that open carry will draw attention to the fact that open carry is legal and that's now so far outside public opinion that the law will be changed to make open carry illegal.

The attitudes about firearms are still worsening in Kentucky, and that's particularly true in urban areas. It's part of an international effort. Fortunately, we have KRS 65.870, but if the attitudes keep eroding and Kentucky continues to become more urban, we're in danger of losing 65.870. We can't allow that, so it's important to open carry often enough that it's not perceived as some sort of kooky aberration or something to be feared. I see the education as three fold. We need to educate gun owners so they are well informed spokespersons, we need to educate the police so they know the gun laws and our rights aren't violated, and we need to educate the public so people don't fear guns and gun owners, so they aren't inclined to legislate away our rights.

Liberty4Ever said:

Sorry you missed the last open carry litter pickup. Yes, we did have it and the weather was very good for the time of the year - a gorgeous 70F and sunny, despite the weather forecast on Friday, Saturday and Sunday predicting Rain on Sunday. They couldn't even get it right on the same day.

There is an advantage to planning these events with a bit less than a weeks' advance notice. You can't guarantee it won't rain, but you can get better chances of nicer temperatures by projecting longer term warming and cooling trends. I organized a shoot at Knob Creek Range on Saturday a few weeks in advance, and it was cold. We got in a lot of shooting, and when we were almost finished it rained, and by the time we were packed up and ready to go, the sleet had turned into snow!

The general plan is to have an open carry picnic in Lexington in April, and another open carry litter pickup in May.

If anyone would like to get an email notice of central Kentucky open carry events, send me a private message with your email address.

If we don't do something to protect our rights, we'll lose them. Open carry is legal in Philadelphia, but it's apparently one of those "virtual rights" that doesn't really exist any more. The first five minutes of this audio are chilling... and infuriating. A concealed weapons permit holder may open carry in Pennsylvania, but Philadelphia police tell a guy he is not allowed to open carry... among a lot of other cursing, intimidation and threatening by the police.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z-vUYeJXSrA

Click to expand...

he was def. treated like a POS for no reason, must say he handled it VERY WELL, he remained respectful and polite through it all, my hats off to him. He def represented the OC community very well!!! the LEO's were very disrespectful

Liberty4Ever said:

The attitudes about firearms are still worsening in Kentucky, and that's particularly true in urban areas. It's part of an international effort. Fortunately, we have KRS 65.870, but if the attitudes keep eroding and Kentucky continues to become more urban, we're in danger of losing 65.870. We can't allow that, so it's important to open carry often enough that it's not perceived as some sort of kooky aberration or something to be feared. I see the education as three fold. We need to educate gun owners so they are well informed spokespersons, we need to educate the police so they know the gun laws and our rights aren't violated, and we need to educate the public so people don't fear guns and gun owners, so they aren't inclined to legislate away our rights.

Click to expand...

I wonder if that's even possible, without an amendment, considering the wording of section 1, the seventh.

If the state government is limited in scope to it's powers to legislate laws against OC, then surely no reasonably thinking person would perceive the counties or cities to have greater authority on the matter. KRS 65.870 seems more of the state telling those in city and county governmen what should easily be inferred from the state constitution, not that it actually made it that way. It eliminates a lot of wasted time with judicial cases.

I'm not saying we shouldn't be watching every move our reps make, just that there isn't any reason to be fearful of OC ever becoming illegal here. But that is also because there are those like us that would absolutely be beating down the doors of the capital with petitions and threats of removal from office next election if the idea ever gained traction. Firearms are just so ingrained in our history and culture here, I just don't see it happening.

I think our primary focus should be on eliminating the "bad apples" that are coming out of Louisville. I can't comment on Lexington, as honestly I haven't heard of any reps from there being anti-gun. The real problem is progressives/liberals HAVE gained a foothold and just like cancer, they need to be removed.

My local rep here in Bullitt county has me a tad bit concerned, I've emailed her a few times over gun related issues and she never responds. That's not to say that she didn't vote in favor if say, HB 313, but I don't know if she did and I would start a campaign to remove her from office if she is not pro gun.

Speaking of which, what is the best way to find out how reps have voted on bills?

UnfetteredMight said:

I'm not saying we shouldn't be watching every move our reps make, just that there isn't any reason to be fearful of OC ever becoming illegal here.

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No place is immune. Don't be vigilant, allow the creeping change to public opinion, and they'll have the support to do anything they want. They'll pass unconstitutional laws and enforce them. It happens all the time. We only have a history and culture of firearms in Kentucky because we practice what we preach. Already, in urban areas, that's disappearing.

UnfetteredMight said:

But that is also because there are those like us that would absolutely be beating down the doors of the capital with petitions and threats of removal from office next election if the idea ever gained traction.

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Having spent a lot of time advocating for firearms legislation and gathering petitions, I can tell you that Frankfort could not care less about a bale of 1800 petitions. They do what they like. They must go very far to overstep the bounds and awaken the slumbering masses. I can also tell you that the 1800 petitions represented a LOT of effort. Even gun owners who are serious enough to go to gun shows often won't bother to sign a petition. The number of gun owners who care about our rights enough to beat down the doors of the capitol are shockingly small. It's pretty much the people who post on Open Carry dot org, and about as many more who don't.

UnfetteredMight said:

I think our primary focus should be on eliminating the "bad apples" that are coming out of Louisville. I can't comment on Lexington, as honestly I haven't heard of any reps from there being anti-gun.

Click to expand...

Kathy Stein
Kelly Flood
Ruth Ann Palumbo
plus a few others

UnfetteredMight said:

Speaking of which, what is the best way to find out how reps have voted on bills?

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Look up the bill on the KRS website, and look at the list of sponsors. The first is the sponsor, and the ones following that are the co-sponsors.

http://www.lrc.ky.gov/record/11RS/HB113.htm

HB 113/LM/CI (BR 165) - M. Harmon, J. Comer Jr., D. Floyd, T. Moore

Mike Harmon sponsored it. Jamie Comer (vote for his as Ag Commissioner!) co-sponsored, and so did David Floyd and Tim Moore. You referred to your rep as a woman, so I assume that you don't live in the part of Bullitt County represented by David Floyd. Maybe your rep is Linda Belcher?

Liberty4Ever said:

No place is immune. Don't be vigilant, allow the creeping change to public opinion, and they'll have the support to do anything they want. They'll pass unconstitutional laws and enforce them. It happens all the time. We only have a history and culture of firearms in Kentucky because we practice what we preach. Already, in urban areas, that's disappearing.

Click to expand...

That is true, I do really go out of my way to educate the ignorant and maybe it'll make a difference when it matters. I guess part of my mind just wants to believe that I never have to worry about it, while the other part knows better lol. Sounds like we should be focusing on educating people in the urban areas then.

Liberty4Ever said:

Having spent a lot of time advocating for firearms legislation and gathering petitions, I can tell you that Frankfort could not care less about a bale of 1800 petitions. They do what they like. They must go very far to overstep the bounds and awaken the slumbering masses. I can also tell you that the 1800 petitions represented a LOT of effort. Even gun owners who are serious enough to go to gun shows often won't bother to sign a petition. The number of gun owners who care about our rights enough to beat down the doors of the capitol are shockingly small. It's pretty much the people who post on Open Carry dot org, and about as many more who don't.

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I find that gun owners can be a somewhat paranoid lot. For example a friend of mine use to worry about signing petitions and such because he was worried that it would put him in the crosshairs and the black vans would come for him. I imagine that many feel that way, but will not express it for fear of being ridiculed by their peers. I bet many of those that walked past your tables and said or thought "no" were thinking this. Ironically, it is their silence that would lead to their worst fear.

Liberty4Ever said:

Look up the bill on the KRS website, and look at the list of sponsors. The first is the sponsor, and the ones following that are the co-sponsors.

http://www.lrc.ky.gov/record/11RS/HB113.htm

HB 113/LM/CI (BR 165) - M. Harmon, J. Comer Jr., D. Floyd, T. Moore

Mike Harmon sponsored it. Jamie Comer (vote for his as Ag Commissioner!) co-sponsored, and so did David Floyd and Tim Moore. You referred to your rep as a woman, so I assume that you don't live in the part of Bullitt County represented by David Floyd. Maybe your rep is Linda Belcher?

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I found that, but what i want is a list of how each rep voted on the bill. Surely a bill could not pass with only 4 people supporting it.

I'll take your recommendation of Mr Comer and do some research on him, but I'm sure if you like him, I will too.

Yes, Linda Belcher. I forgot there were two for Bullitt.

Not sure if this is what you're looking for or not:

http://www.kentuckyvotes.org/

I'm not sure how to find your representatives voting record on the LRC website, but I think you can. The Kentucky Club For Growth publishes a rating of all members of the Kentucky Senate and House, ranked by how fiscally responsible they are based on their voting record. I need to ask Andy where he gets the data for each legislator.

Unfortunately, the Kentucky Votes site hasn't been updated in the last two years. The guy who did it was busy being Rand Paul's campaign manager, and is now Phil Moffett's campaign manager (our next governor!), so he doesn't have time to do the Kentucky Votes site. He called me today. Next time I talk to him, I'll ask where to find the voting records.

I do remember that the Kentucky Votes info is available elsewhere, and my old brain seems to remember that tax dollars are now spent to provide this info, so I'd bet the LRC is doing it.

I should know this! When I find out, I'll let you know.

Liberty4Ever said:

I'm not sure how to find your representatives voting record on the LRC website, but I think you can. The Kentucky Club For Growth publishes a rating of all members of the Kentucky Senate and House, ranked by how fiscally responsible they are based on their voting record. I need to ask Andy where he gets the data for each legislator.

Unfortunately, the Kentucky Votes site hasn't been updated in the last two years. The guy who did it was busy being Rand Paul's campaign manager, and is now Phil Moffett's campaign manager (our next governor!), so he doesn't have time to do the Kentucky Votes site. He called me today. Next time I talk to him, I'll ask where to find the voting records.

I do remember that the Kentucky Votes info is available elsewhere, and my old brain seems to remember that tax dollars are now spent to provide this info, so I'd bet the LRC is doing it.

I should know this! When I find out, I'll let you know.

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I found it, hiding from me in plain view lol. Its at the bottom of each bills page.

Here is 313's voting history
http://www.lrc.ky.gov/record/11RS/HB313/vote_history.pdf

Belcher voted for it, good for her.

The only three that voted against it were from Jefferson County, I'm not surprised. You guys in Jefferson need to either get a grip on your reps or campaign against them and VOTE THOSE PEOPLE OUT!