I’ve noticed the Brady folks keep touting the picture of their vigil from Conowingo, MD. My guess is because it’s their biggest crowd at any of the events, and it photographed well. The rest of the pictures features your prototypical close ups, or one-off snapshots, probably to conceal the fact that there was very low turnout at most events. I mean, the Pittsburgh event featuring CeaseFirePA looks like a pretty decent house party. It’s no surprise that Heeding God’s Call turned out the usual suspects in Philadelphia. Reading wasn’t too bad a crowd.
I count about 33 people in the headlining event crowd in Conowingo. The unescapable fact for the Brady Campaign and other groups is these are pathetic turnouts. Dennis wants to know whether politicians are listening. They are not. They should not. At my club, we get a better turnout for air gun matches when Larry is making his famous New England clam chowder than the Brady’s got at Conowingo. My club this summer had a picnic that turned out four hundred, and that’s only because we capped it. The area gun shows on any given weekend draw thousands.
Whether the antis want to accept it or not, this is why we’re listened to, and they are ignored. There are simply a lot more of us than there are of you. Time to start facing facts.
For the Pittsburgh photo, those were the same folks who did the NRA protest. In fact, one of the guys in my video of the protest is the employee of one of the candle party speakers.
It appears that the average gun show in a small city has more attendees than the Brady Bunch could get nationwide for their protest.
It’s worth noting the the newly elected Mayor of Reading is a convicted felon. He was convicted, back in the 80’s, of assaulting a cop and breaking a woman’s shoulder.
Has he signed up with MAIG yet? They are always looking for more illegal mayors.
Not yet, but I’m sure he will. It was shocking to see some other Berks County mayor on the MAIG site. Roy Del Rosario from Hamburg was the shocker.
I’d guess that they’re using that photo to try to pull heartstrings with Christina-Taylor Green and the Giffords shooting, not impress with turnout. Conowingo is a small town in a fairly rural Maryland county.
Ironic that he begins his diatribe and self-promotion by quoting Reverend King, who was not himself opposed to private ownership of guns.
I’d like to think the politicos are listening and looking and then paying these events the attention they so richly deserve…not one bloody bit.
The reporter that interviewed me for the Raleigh vigil (I counterprotested) said that the North Carolinians Against Gun Violence spokesperson said that they had no chance in the legislature. They tried to make it out like this was a turning point in their “campaign†in that they had to start on “cultural change†instead of pursuing a legislative strategy. As I pointed out to the reporter, this is essentially the same thing as saying “our quarterback got sacked 3 times running, so we’re going to drop back and punt.â€
Read the story in the News and Observer
http://www.newsobserver.com/2012/01/09/1763477/gun-control-advocates-hold-memorial.html
“The reality is that we can’t look to our political leaders to make significant changes,” said Rachel Smith of Raleigh, a member of the board of trustees of the national Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence.
“So how do we change the culture? We want to make it socially unacceptable to be armed, much like drinking and driving and smoking in public.”
The photos bring back fond memories of October 2000, when the “Million” Moms held a rally and march in the Lehigh Valley (PA) and we turned out over 2000 gun owners to face about 75 Moms (of both genders.)
It was said that doing that bore some unforeseen fruit, in that other anti-gun initiatives never got off the ground, in the anticipation they would also be met with 2000+ angry demonstrators, and thus fail to make their political point.