Boston Common Pro 2A Rally

Today was the GOAL rally on the common. . . as expected the news folks were there and they were very bias with their reporting.  I watched as they filmed the crowd, being sure to get lots of footage before the rally started and of the edges of the crowd with minimal filming in the main body of the crowd.  The crowd continued to grow as the speeches went on.  Remember this is a work day so you got a lot fewer folks than we could have on a weekend. . . many still took a day off for this important event.

I don't know how many folks showed up but I heard anywhere from 3000 to 4000 folks. . . I look forward to the official estimates when we get them.  .

Here are some photos from today:

Right front of crowd.  this is the edge they filmed for TV early in the rally

Front of me

Front left of me

GOAL speech

left side of the crowd

They had a number of speakers from GOAL and other pro gun groups from around the county including Il and the west coast. . . One speaker was from China (Yang Li) and is now a citizen here.  He gave a hell of a speech on  our rights and how rare it is to have them in the world today. . .

Allan Gottlieb was one of the speakers.

Here are some photos of the crowd.  Taken looking all around me . . .

Behind me to the road

Right side of me

Front/left of me

You can see the size of the crowd in the walk up to the State House. . .

This is looking back from the path to the rally start at the Band Stand:e 

This is looking up the path to the state house. . you can see folks all the way up the path

The rally then moved to the state house where many folks went in to talk to the reps. . . strange how they were all in session today. . . This full day session was announced after the rally was. . .

The rest of us stayed out front and many took turns speaking to the crowd on a megaphone.  the Oat Keepers were there to ask us to take the oath to uphold our Constitution against all enemies foreign and domestic which many did.  All and all a great day, good turn out and got us all energized to keep the fight going.

While at the state house I ran into a college kid filming and he noticed my sign "What right will they take next?  Your vote? Free Speech?  Gay Rights?" and he asked if I thought they would take gay rights. . .  I said once the 2ed is gone they are all up for grabs.

He then asked me to do a quick interview which I did.  He asked about my thought on the Stop Handgun Violence group and I told him no one supports gun violence but they named the group wrong.  He then asked about the NRA idea to arm folks in schools and I noted that yes I agree with giving them the OPTION if they are trained to be armed.  I then discussed with him that cops are really the second responder, the victim is the first responder so if someone at a school wants to be armed and is trained they should be able to carry and respond when needed.

After he finished I said "since I answered your questions will you tell me where you stand?" and he admitted he did not really have a stance on the 2ed (at least not one he would tell me) and had not thought too much about it.  I then discussed with him that we are all interested in freedom.  We don't want to MAKE anyone own a gun or carry a gun, but we also don't want anyone to say we CAN'T if we chose to do it.  That seemed to make him think a bit.  I don't know but I hope I got him thinking. . . he was a nice and polite guy.  I think he really would be worth discussing things with as he seemed to really wanted to learn about things.  He may not be pro 2A but he was at least educating himself on it which is all we can really ask folks to do