Yesterday was the 10th Annual 2A Rally at the PA Capitol. Pictures can be found here. I have not gone for several years. Mainly because we’re not facing any major threats. The situation in Pennsylvania is this: With the GOP firmly in control of the legislature, we’re not likely to see any bad bills. With Governor Wolf in the Governor’s mansion, we’re not likely to get anything done. So for the next four years, it’s a stalemate unless the Democrats manage to gain seats in the legislature. The other issue is numbers. Illinois does their IGOLD rally day which was turning up thousands. That’s many people makes an impression on legislators, especially when you can get repeatability every year. We’ve always struggled with that in Pennsylvania. Illinoisans had issues that galvanized their grassroots. We don’t have anything like that here in Pennsylvania.
I’m not saying don’t go, but if you do, I’d head in after the speeches to your lawmaker’s office and try to speak with them one-on-one about your concerns as a gun owner. If you can bring someone else from the district too, that would be even better. I’m big on the impact of direct contact with lawmakers. Not so much on rallies and protests, unless you can turn out numbers that wow lawmakers. That’s a hard thing to do without an issue or threat that galvanizes people.
These Republican campaign events always make me nervous, since that year several back when the same buckos who were orating about our rights at the podium in the morning, went back into session that afternoon to vote unanimously to increase the penalties for possessing a firearm with an “obscured” serial number. Obviously, increasing penalties for simple possession of a firearm of any nature, was a very, very pro-gun thing to do, even if people like me couldn’t see it.
“Not so much on rallies and protests, unless you can turn out numbers that wow lawmakers.”
I have wondered what those numbers would be, given that we turned out 8,000 – 10,000 gun owners on June 14, 1994, and the legislators reaction was to go back inside the Capitol and continue work on the anti-gun legislation that would become Act 17 of 1995. Of course, we had been lured to the state capitol to be campaigned to, and that we had fallen for it and schlepped there so readily may be why the pols held so little respect for us.
Actually we DO have a good number of major issues to work on, but people have been too complacent to get them done. For one, eliminating the ban on semi auto rifles and pistols for hunting in PA. That distinction in the law needs to be wiped away so that there isn’t a rift in classes of gun owners anymore which has been a major handicap for us here. Second, campus carry–maybe the single biggest issue there is, for several reasons. Third, parking lot employee protection. Fourth, reversal of tort liability for employee carry–complete protection from liability for legally armed employees’ defense of self and others while imposing strict liability for disarmament policies.
Nothing to do? More like too much to do.
I agree, but for the next four years we have Wolf’s veto pen to contend with.
So what? At least make him have to veto and explain himself to the public then give him the win by default. Maybe even override him if possible. New York is full of pro gun people who don’t try–we need to NOT be them.
I don’t disagree. My biggest issue is that I don’t think this rally is a very effective tool. I’m not arguing we shouldn’t fight. I’m not even arguing that a lobby day, or something like that, is necessarily a bad idea. But I think the rally as its currently constituted, for a lot of reasons I won’t get into on a public forum, isn’t the right tool.
Its my opinion that we can get numbers, if it wasnt Metcalf holding the rally. his stances on a lot of subject push away all of the growing groups of gun owners. I know its made at least one very effective member of a statewide org resign a BOD position because of his constant gay bashing.
I am not his biggest fan either. I appreciate what he does on the gun issue, but I agree with him on little else. He’s also a demagogue of the highest order.