Looks like the woman who open carried to the kids soccer game is going head to head with Bryan Miller. My advice to her is to be prepared. Bryan is a ruthless debater, and he will corral you, then go in for the kill if you’re not prepared. Get your talking points together, and stick to them. Bryan will try to change the debate to grounds that are more favorable to him. Play the nice soccer mom who just wants to protect her kids. Let Bryan’s overly aggressive tendencies work against him in the public eye.
This is the big time. When you talk to the media you represent all gun owners, and will be judged accordingly.
He’s also very passive aggressive, and will try and bait you. This woman needs to keep her cool, and not allow her feathers to be ruffled.
I am sure she is prepared. She should explain her reasons for bringing a gun to her child’s soccer match. Last event a team member her son who almost fell.
The coach wrongfully claimed her son started the pushing.
She told the coach if he ever sides against her son again she would blow his balls off (the soccer balls of coourse).
She had to pack. If you threaten you must be prepared to carry through. Other wise you get no respect.
Hal… what you just said doesn’t really make any sense.
Didn’t see this; how did it go?
She held her own with Bryan.
Bryan’s a jerk. Sorry, couldn’t resist.
Sebastian,
Turns out we don’t get Comcast. Do you know if this segment is available anywhere on the web?
Paul
I found it online the video.
http://www.lildobe.net/gallery2/v/PAFOA/Meleanie/SFN+on+Lyn+Doyle.flv.html
Thanks RAH! I just watched the episode.
Wow!! I agree that Melanie held her own against Bryan even if she was plainly nervous at the start (who wouldn’t be). By the end however she was killing them (so to speak)! She clearly got the best of the LEO who admitted that he was okay with concealed carry and was okay with what Carol did in the ladies room incident. By the way, why were both anti’s from PRNJ as one caller pointed out? Couldn’t they find any anti’s in PA?
Bryan on the other hand came off as a bully, as he usually does, and I loved when Melanie called him on the carpet about his “we have no problem” with responsible gun owners comment. I also believe he got the Heller decision wrong but Melanie was correct not to engage on that front. After all, she is perfectly legal to carry in PA and Heller did not change or even affect that at least in the short term. Bryan looked foolish debating the ladies room incident as clearly he can’t conceive of a situation where it would be okay to draw down on a threat. He said Carol didn’t “know†if the guy was a threat and what if she was wrong? Well, the only way Bryan is happy is if Carol is dead or severely injured; at least then we’d “know†the guy was a threat.
Have to give kudos to Lynn as well as she was plainly fair and more importantly balanced in her presentation and the way she handled the callers and speakers; good for her.
Anybody have Melanie’s email addy; I’d love to send her a note of support.
Finally, I must say that I’m not a fan of open carry for lots of reasons but I don’t hold it against them. When I carry it’s concealed and I try hard not to print. The only person that should know I’m armed is me and a criminal the instant I draw down on him (which I really hope that I never have to do).
I just saw the complete video. Had to take it in breaks as I was doing other things, but Melanie did a very good job. Better than the Tom fellow who was on her side. Thankfully Bryan went overboard. I read the preliminary that when they met before the show he called her a jerk since she was carrying at the time and told him so when he asked.
She mentioned that she was not intimidating him on the show since she carried why on the set.
My guess is that he was personally angry with her and it showed. The cop was NJ cop who like many do not like open carry but likes CCW, but he was next to an anti gun person.
I think that Sebastian’s fears were premature that she would not be a good spokesman for the issue. She managed to get the point that unexpected dangers happen in the most innocuous places. The caller, Carol slammed that point by being in an upscale place and a ladies bathroom when confronted by a large male that meant her harm. She drew on him and the laser point showed him his danger. The cop had to agree that her actions were right and that undercut Bryan’s argument, especially when he attacked the caller as a probable liar and that unless he could be at the scene and assess the danger she was wrong to have a gun and draw on an assailant.
This segment did not do Bryan Miller any good as a reasonable person that supports responsible gun use. Melanie did slam him for his support of the bans in Chicago and DC. He could not refute that when she said she read his own blogs. His own behavior on set also showed he was just antigun. That is important to those who do not follow the gun debates as we do.
paulraynolds,
I won’t post Meleanie’s e-mail addy publicly, but if you send your message to greg@paopencarry.org, I will forward it on to her.
I just watched it, and I was impressed–very impressed. I hope she continues to act as an advocate for armed self-defense. As Paul Reynolds said, she got better as she went along. I have to think that she’ll also get better the more times she does this kind of thing.
I think she would have been even better without the long-haired, excitable guy on her side (I don’t have anything against long hair–I was a guitarist in a Grateful Dead cover band into my mid-twenties–I just found him to be without much in the way of useful contributions to the debate).