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NES Protest on Beacon Hill
- Thread starter SKS Ray
- Start date
- Joined
- Mar 31, 2008
- Messages
- 263
- Likes
- 8
I would do this.
8:02 PM. Twenty Nine views and only 2 people willing to protest?!?
I'm serious about this. We can sit behind our keyboards and piss and moan all we want but unless something is done to show how dedicated we are, we might as well lean over and kiss ass for the rest of our lives as Massachusetts residents and eventually submit.
I'm serious about this. We can sit behind our keyboards and piss and moan all we want but unless something is done to show how dedicated we are, we might as well lean over and kiss ass for the rest of our lives as Massachusetts residents and eventually submit.
I've never participated in a protest before but I'm picturing a group of Massachusetts gun owners with signs getting our point across.
As for when, well that would depend on what day everyone would be willing to attend. My guess is the sooner the better.
Has anyone here ever organized anything like this?
You've had nothing but patience for me and my questions, so the least I could do is give you and this country some of my time. However, I possess absolutely zero artistic ability, so I will have to pay someone to make me a sign.
CRSIII
NES Member
I'm sure you could scribble "IMPEACH COAKLEY" on some cardboard.
June4th
NES Member
I will clear my schedule to make it! I'm blessed with a flexible working schedule so I'll show up short of an emergency.
There's a reason why conservatives never make a big crowd in protests: we all have to work for a living and pay for the nanny state!
There's a reason why conservatives never make a big crowd in protests: we all have to work for a living and pay for the nanny state!
Schedule permitting, I am in.
With a name like Houdini, I would have guessed you could appear any time, any place.
![[smile]](/xen/styles/default/xenforo/smilies.vb/001.gif "Smile [smile]")
Best regards.
Perhaps we should enlist GOAL to spread the word. This should be done with proper planning so we can achieve maximum effect, not something that should be haphazard or rushed. What is the timeline for the Evil one's proposal?
Patriot
NES Member
Thousands blast gun law
Gun control supporters hold smaller rally nearby
Tuesday, May 18, 1999
By Brian S. McNiff
TELEGRAM & GAZETTE BOSTON BUREAU
HUNTING@GOAL@ BOSTON--
Almost 5,000 gun owners and their supporters rallied on Boston Common
yesterday against last year's gun control law, while legislators who drafted the law vowed,
at a separate gathering, to defend it.
“We are not the enemy and will no longer tolerate being treated like criminals,”
declared Michael D. Yacino, executive director of the Northboro-based Gun
Owners Action League, as the 2.5-hour rally on the Common opened.
An hour before the GOAL rally started, advocates of the gun control law
passed last year stood at the Statehouse steps.
“I will do everything in my power to fight the NRA (National Rifle Association)
and GOAL,” vowed Attorney General Thomas F. Reilly. “I will fight them in federal
court; I will fight them in the court of public opinion.”
Joining him were Senate President Thomas F. Birmingham, former Attorney
General Scott Harshbarger, and John Rosenthal of Stop Handgun Violence.
Dr. Libby Bradshaw, chairman of the Massachusetts Medical Society's
Committee on Violence, called passage of the gun control law “probably the most
significant public health victory of the last session.”
“The Massachusetts Medical Society supported the state's comprehensive gun law
as part of our efforts to reduce preventable injuries and deaths,” she said.
Pro-gun forces want to dismantle a Massachusetts gun control law that activists
say is the toughest in the nation and a model that Congress should emulate at a time of
rising national public concern about gun violence.
Backers of the law urged GOAL to withdraw its proposed legislation which,
they said, would repeal gun control in the state. Last year's law, which incorporated
the federal assault weapons ban, prohibits high-capacity weapons manufactured after
September 1994, requires renewable firearm ID cards, and makes gun owners
responsible for the safe storage of their weapons. Several penalties for a variety of
gun-related crimes also were increased.
At the bottom of Beacon Hill, gun owners promised to defeat lawmakers who
oppose their right to own guns. They applauded a mix of national and state
speakers who assailed the law's backers as advocates of an unconstitutional restriction
on citizens.
John Hohenwarter, a liaison from the NRA, told the crowd, “No tyranny can ever
arise among a people endowed with the right to keep and bear arms.”
Many speakers evoked the battles of Lexington and Concord. “The shot heard
round the world was the first salvo in the battle for gun control,” said Chip Ford of
Citizens for Limited Taxation and Government.
Banners from North Leominster, Otter River, Petersham, Upton and Royalston
dotted the crowd that arrived on several buses parked along Charles Street. Scores
of gun owners lined up to get their copies of “More Guns, Less Crime” by John R. Lott
Jr., autographed by the author.
Rep. George R. Peterson, R-Grafton, said the gun control law “was passed
through subversion of the process.” An 18-page bill, he said, turned into a 64-page
bill without members having a chance to read it, let alone have a hearing on it.
He urged the crowd to go up to the Statehouse. “Tell them, we're the
government; tell them that we support repeal of Chapter 180,” he said of last year's gun
control law.
Peterson also urged the crowd to solicit the support of their neighbors. “Make
sure they know who and who not to vote for,” he said. “We're going to have to
educate people on what's wrong with this law.”
Mark J. Ramberg of Worcester went up to the Statehouse to lobby his legislators,
though he described his representative, Harriette L. Chandler, D-Worcester, as “a
lost cause” on this issue. Chandler was one of five Central Massachusetts
representatives to vote for the gun control bill.
He said he would try to present statistics and philosophical arguments to the
legislators who voted for the bill last year, “or find someone to run against them.”
Steve D. Hadley of Pepperell said the essential question is self-defense. “I should
be able to defend myself with any means I find necessary from a criminal or from a
government trying to take away my rights.”
Ramberg agreed. “The 2nd Amendment is not about duck hunting,” he
said.
Roger P. Blais of Hudson, who said he is a good friend of Gov. Paul Cellucci,
waited on the third floor to see his fellow townsman, but eventually was directed to
the first-floor constituent office.
Blais, a member of the Marlboro Fish & Game Club who said he does target
shooting and “a little bit of hunting,” said the new law gives police chiefs too much
discretion. “I'd like to see the government focus more on crime issues,” he said.
On the Common, Sen. Guy W. Glodis, D-Worcester, described Yacino as
“a tireless advocate for our constitutional rights.” Referring to the recent tragedy at
Columbine High School in Littleton, Colo., Glodis declared, “Gun owners are not the
problem; the problem is the breakdown in family values.”
Rep. Ronald W. Gauch, R-Shrewsbury, told the rally, “Every gun
owner should be a member of GOAL because they are the group really helping us
keep our guns.”
Sen. Stephen M. Brewer, D-Barre, said constituents in his district, which
includes parts of Worcester, Franklin, Hampden and Hampshire counties, “know a
little bit about the tyranny of the majority. They sacrificed four towns, Dana, Prescott,
Enfield and Greenwich, so Greater Boston could have drinking water. They sacrificed a
way of life.”
“Give me a kid doing hunting and fishing,” said Brewer, “and I'll give you a kid
not doing crack cocaine on the sidewalk.”
Sen. Richard T. Moore, D-Uxbridge, declared, “Something is wrong with a law
when it takes cops off the street and puts them behind desks pushing papers to
register people under the law.”
©1999 Worcester Telegram & Gazette
*************************************
Rally proves gun lovers are still out there
by Margery Eagan
Tuesday, May 18, 1999
Boston Common yesterday featured the greatest number of oversized
belt buckles ever assembled at one time in one place in state history.
And there were hundreds of American flags, too, all waving. And
dungarees and pointed black cowboy boots and cowboy hats.
But mostly there were black baseball caps with the bright gold insignia
of the National Rifle Association and lots of placards: ``Gun Control is
Racist, Sexist Genocide'' ``Registration (leads to) Confiscation (leads
to) Genocide. Was Adolph Right?'' Our favorite blamed the slaughters
in Yugoslavia, Rwanda, Tibet - and Germany - on gun control.
There was a distinct Ruby Ridge redux,
the-government-is-out-to-get-us feel to the event, the 5,000 strong
rally of the Gun Owners' Action League. There was this
I-wanna-be-a-suburban-cowboy mentality.
Or, better yet, a hicksville cowboy, as in way out there, somewhere
off the Mass Pike or at the far reaches of 93. From towns with
something to prove and lots of Amvets posts.
This was definitely not a South End crowd. Cambridge would recoil.
And after an extensive search for a black face we came upon Al
Stokes of the Holbrook Sportsman Club, who assured us we were
wrong: First, he insisted, there are lots of pro-gun, sporting
African-Americans, even if we couldn't find any; second,
semi-automatics are just fine.
''People who are against them don't understand them,'' said Richard
Freel, 59, who wore a ''Freedom Depends on Firearm Freedom'' sign
on his back.
''They're used in legitimate sports,'' said Fred Fowler, 56, who
seemed, like Freel, a regular guy.
But then there were the irregular guys, a tad edgy, agitated and
tight-lipped, like David Singer, 53, wearing sunglasses and a floppy
hat. ``We don't have to justify (automatic weapons), ma'am,'' he
said. ``They already exist, ma'am,'' he said. Then he went on and on,
ma'am, about government having no right to tell him what to do and
his right to protect himself and how there were probably as many
concealed weapons in yesterday's crowd as there were people and he
was carrying himself, ''but do you feel threatened?''
We quickly moved on.
We also noticed an unusually high number of T-shirts with rolled-up
sleeves. Many revealed rippling tattoos. Here's one: ''Better dead
than dishonored.''
And we came to understand where that sentiment comes from
yesterday after hearing some damn persuasive GOAL speakers.
Michael Yacino framed the pro-gun debate in an appealing dweeb vs.
mountain man fashion. ''Our crowd,'' he told the belt buckles, ''is
just a wee bit bigger than the whiners and handwringers up on the
State House steps.'' He was referring, needless to say, to the
anti-gun crowd.
Then tax-cut activist Barbara Anderson spoke. ''I own a gun for
self-protection. Doesn't everybody?'' she said. ''Chip Ford, my
boyfriend, bought me a gun for Christmas. Wasn't that romantic?'' The
crowd loved it.
Anderson said Ford purchased her a yuletide .38-caliber Smith &
Wesson Airweight; she bought him a festive .9 mm with a ``large
capacity . . . because guys are different.'' She said having her gun
nearby makes her feel secure, and if she's out with Ford, he has his.
''I can't stand the thought of being a victim.''
So we heard her and Ford and Yacino and some academic writer for
the Wall Street Journal claim guns actually prevent untold thousands
of crimes and how it's our duty to get with the program. And we
wondered, briefly, if as vigilant mothers we must now race off to the
local fish-and-game and put a semi-automatic on Visa so we'd be
ready, say, for a future McDonald's Massacre.
And we wondered, briefly, if we should show up at the next PTO
demanding that teachers start packing ''large capacity'' too, so
when the next schoolboy shooters strike, Ms. Sims in Kindergarten 1
will have massive retaliatory firepower. And we wondered if so-called
gun nuts are right: If, in 1999, anybody's a potential mass murderer,
then should finger-on-the-trigger be our national motto now? Then,
we took one last, hard look around Boston Common at the buckles
and boots on some 5,000 men who seem unable to imagine life
without great big, bad guns. We felt their last-stand, post-Littleton
desperation and came to our senses, thank God.
***************************************************
Not only didn't we get any coverage to speak of. The only people
who wrote articles were tools like the above. Want to list all the
successes we have had since that memorable rally? I would count
zero. What makes you think that bitching about the cost of your
license vs possibly the most heinous gun control bill in our lifetime
other than outright confiscation will do any better? The amount
of people at this rally surpassed almost every other demonstration
on the common in recent history and the amount of positive press
that was obtained was squat. The only thing that will change the
way these tools vote is public opinion and sentiment and I don't
see that happening in this hellhold. It was a fun day and I still
have the protest sign I carried that day so if this gets organized,
count me in. But, if you can't gin up north of 5K people I would
say you have no chance of changing anything.
ETA:
5/20/1999
According to an exclusive Herald poll today, an 85 percent majority of registered voters
support the state ban on assault weapons. Where do you stand?
I support the ban on assault weapons. 12%
The ban is good, but does not go far enough; more
weapons should be banned. 0%
The ban is too harsh and needs to be modified. 0%
I do not support the state’s ban on assault weapons. 86%
I am undecided. 0%
860 people have voted so far.
I submit that 860 people who had zero influence to change things.
Gun control supporters hold smaller rally nearby
Tuesday, May 18, 1999
By Brian S. McNiff
TELEGRAM & GAZETTE BOSTON BUREAU
HUNTING@GOAL@ BOSTON--
Almost 5,000 gun owners and their supporters rallied on Boston Common
yesterday against last year's gun control law, while legislators who drafted the law vowed,
at a separate gathering, to defend it.
“We are not the enemy and will no longer tolerate being treated like criminals,”
declared Michael D. Yacino, executive director of the Northboro-based Gun
Owners Action League, as the 2.5-hour rally on the Common opened.
An hour before the GOAL rally started, advocates of the gun control law
passed last year stood at the Statehouse steps.
“I will do everything in my power to fight the NRA (National Rifle Association)
and GOAL,” vowed Attorney General Thomas F. Reilly. “I will fight them in federal
court; I will fight them in the court of public opinion.”
Joining him were Senate President Thomas F. Birmingham, former Attorney
General Scott Harshbarger, and John Rosenthal of Stop Handgun Violence.
Dr. Libby Bradshaw, chairman of the Massachusetts Medical Society's
Committee on Violence, called passage of the gun control law “probably the most
significant public health victory of the last session.”
“The Massachusetts Medical Society supported the state's comprehensive gun law
as part of our efforts to reduce preventable injuries and deaths,” she said.
Pro-gun forces want to dismantle a Massachusetts gun control law that activists
say is the toughest in the nation and a model that Congress should emulate at a time of
rising national public concern about gun violence.
Backers of the law urged GOAL to withdraw its proposed legislation which,
they said, would repeal gun control in the state. Last year's law, which incorporated
the federal assault weapons ban, prohibits high-capacity weapons manufactured after
September 1994, requires renewable firearm ID cards, and makes gun owners
responsible for the safe storage of their weapons. Several penalties for a variety of
gun-related crimes also were increased.
At the bottom of Beacon Hill, gun owners promised to defeat lawmakers who
oppose their right to own guns. They applauded a mix of national and state
speakers who assailed the law's backers as advocates of an unconstitutional restriction
on citizens.
John Hohenwarter, a liaison from the NRA, told the crowd, “No tyranny can ever
arise among a people endowed with the right to keep and bear arms.”
Many speakers evoked the battles of Lexington and Concord. “The shot heard
round the world was the first salvo in the battle for gun control,” said Chip Ford of
Citizens for Limited Taxation and Government.
Banners from North Leominster, Otter River, Petersham, Upton and Royalston
dotted the crowd that arrived on several buses parked along Charles Street. Scores
of gun owners lined up to get their copies of “More Guns, Less Crime” by John R. Lott
Jr., autographed by the author.
Rep. George R. Peterson, R-Grafton, said the gun control law “was passed
through subversion of the process.” An 18-page bill, he said, turned into a 64-page
bill without members having a chance to read it, let alone have a hearing on it.
He urged the crowd to go up to the Statehouse. “Tell them, we're the
government; tell them that we support repeal of Chapter 180,” he said of last year's gun
control law.
Peterson also urged the crowd to solicit the support of their neighbors. “Make
sure they know who and who not to vote for,” he said. “We're going to have to
educate people on what's wrong with this law.”
Mark J. Ramberg of Worcester went up to the Statehouse to lobby his legislators,
though he described his representative, Harriette L. Chandler, D-Worcester, as “a
lost cause” on this issue. Chandler was one of five Central Massachusetts
representatives to vote for the gun control bill.
He said he would try to present statistics and philosophical arguments to the
legislators who voted for the bill last year, “or find someone to run against them.”
Steve D. Hadley of Pepperell said the essential question is self-defense. “I should
be able to defend myself with any means I find necessary from a criminal or from a
government trying to take away my rights.”
Ramberg agreed. “The 2nd Amendment is not about duck hunting,” he
said.
Roger P. Blais of Hudson, who said he is a good friend of Gov. Paul Cellucci,
waited on the third floor to see his fellow townsman, but eventually was directed to
the first-floor constituent office.
Blais, a member of the Marlboro Fish & Game Club who said he does target
shooting and “a little bit of hunting,” said the new law gives police chiefs too much
discretion. “I'd like to see the government focus more on crime issues,” he said.
On the Common, Sen. Guy W. Glodis, D-Worcester, described Yacino as
“a tireless advocate for our constitutional rights.” Referring to the recent tragedy at
Columbine High School in Littleton, Colo., Glodis declared, “Gun owners are not the
problem; the problem is the breakdown in family values.”
Rep. Ronald W. Gauch, R-Shrewsbury, told the rally, “Every gun
owner should be a member of GOAL because they are the group really helping us
keep our guns.”
Sen. Stephen M. Brewer, D-Barre, said constituents in his district, which
includes parts of Worcester, Franklin, Hampden and Hampshire counties, “know a
little bit about the tyranny of the majority. They sacrificed four towns, Dana, Prescott,
Enfield and Greenwich, so Greater Boston could have drinking water. They sacrificed a
way of life.”
“Give me a kid doing hunting and fishing,” said Brewer, “and I'll give you a kid
not doing crack cocaine on the sidewalk.”
Sen. Richard T. Moore, D-Uxbridge, declared, “Something is wrong with a law
when it takes cops off the street and puts them behind desks pushing papers to
register people under the law.”
©1999 Worcester Telegram & Gazette
*************************************
Rally proves gun lovers are still out there
by Margery Eagan
Tuesday, May 18, 1999
Boston Common yesterday featured the greatest number of oversized
belt buckles ever assembled at one time in one place in state history.
And there were hundreds of American flags, too, all waving. And
dungarees and pointed black cowboy boots and cowboy hats.
But mostly there were black baseball caps with the bright gold insignia
of the National Rifle Association and lots of placards: ``Gun Control is
Racist, Sexist Genocide'' ``Registration (leads to) Confiscation (leads
to) Genocide. Was Adolph Right?'' Our favorite blamed the slaughters
in Yugoslavia, Rwanda, Tibet - and Germany - on gun control.
There was a distinct Ruby Ridge redux,
the-government-is-out-to-get-us feel to the event, the 5,000 strong
rally of the Gun Owners' Action League. There was this
I-wanna-be-a-suburban-cowboy mentality.
Or, better yet, a hicksville cowboy, as in way out there, somewhere
off the Mass Pike or at the far reaches of 93. From towns with
something to prove and lots of Amvets posts.
This was definitely not a South End crowd. Cambridge would recoil.
And after an extensive search for a black face we came upon Al
Stokes of the Holbrook Sportsman Club, who assured us we were
wrong: First, he insisted, there are lots of pro-gun, sporting
African-Americans, even if we couldn't find any; second,
semi-automatics are just fine.
''People who are against them don't understand them,'' said Richard
Freel, 59, who wore a ''Freedom Depends on Firearm Freedom'' sign
on his back.
''They're used in legitimate sports,'' said Fred Fowler, 56, who
seemed, like Freel, a regular guy.
But then there were the irregular guys, a tad edgy, agitated and
tight-lipped, like David Singer, 53, wearing sunglasses and a floppy
hat. ``We don't have to justify (automatic weapons), ma'am,'' he
said. ``They already exist, ma'am,'' he said. Then he went on and on,
ma'am, about government having no right to tell him what to do and
his right to protect himself and how there were probably as many
concealed weapons in yesterday's crowd as there were people and he
was carrying himself, ''but do you feel threatened?''
We quickly moved on.
We also noticed an unusually high number of T-shirts with rolled-up
sleeves. Many revealed rippling tattoos. Here's one: ''Better dead
than dishonored.''
And we came to understand where that sentiment comes from
yesterday after hearing some damn persuasive GOAL speakers.
Michael Yacino framed the pro-gun debate in an appealing dweeb vs.
mountain man fashion. ''Our crowd,'' he told the belt buckles, ''is
just a wee bit bigger than the whiners and handwringers up on the
State House steps.'' He was referring, needless to say, to the
anti-gun crowd.
Then tax-cut activist Barbara Anderson spoke. ''I own a gun for
self-protection. Doesn't everybody?'' she said. ''Chip Ford, my
boyfriend, bought me a gun for Christmas. Wasn't that romantic?'' The
crowd loved it.
Anderson said Ford purchased her a yuletide .38-caliber Smith &
Wesson Airweight; she bought him a festive .9 mm with a ``large
capacity . . . because guys are different.'' She said having her gun
nearby makes her feel secure, and if she's out with Ford, he has his.
''I can't stand the thought of being a victim.''
So we heard her and Ford and Yacino and some academic writer for
the Wall Street Journal claim guns actually prevent untold thousands
of crimes and how it's our duty to get with the program. And we
wondered, briefly, if as vigilant mothers we must now race off to the
local fish-and-game and put a semi-automatic on Visa so we'd be
ready, say, for a future McDonald's Massacre.
And we wondered, briefly, if we should show up at the next PTO
demanding that teachers start packing ''large capacity'' too, so
when the next schoolboy shooters strike, Ms. Sims in Kindergarten 1
will have massive retaliatory firepower. And we wondered if so-called
gun nuts are right: If, in 1999, anybody's a potential mass murderer,
then should finger-on-the-trigger be our national motto now? Then,
we took one last, hard look around Boston Common at the buckles
and boots on some 5,000 men who seem unable to imagine life
without great big, bad guns. We felt their last-stand, post-Littleton
desperation and came to our senses, thank God.
***************************************************
Not only didn't we get any coverage to speak of. The only people
who wrote articles were tools like the above. Want to list all the
successes we have had since that memorable rally? I would count
zero. What makes you think that bitching about the cost of your
license vs possibly the most heinous gun control bill in our lifetime
other than outright confiscation will do any better? The amount
of people at this rally surpassed almost every other demonstration
on the common in recent history and the amount of positive press
that was obtained was squat. The only thing that will change the
way these tools vote is public opinion and sentiment and I don't
see that happening in this hellhold. It was a fun day and I still
have the protest sign I carried that day so if this gets organized,
count me in. But, if you can't gin up north of 5K people I would
say you have no chance of changing anything.
ETA:
5/20/1999
According to an exclusive Herald poll today, an 85 percent majority of registered voters
support the state ban on assault weapons. Where do you stand?
I support the ban on assault weapons. 12%
The ban is good, but does not go far enough; more
weapons should be banned. 0%
The ban is too harsh and needs to be modified. 0%
I do not support the state’s ban on assault weapons. 86%
I am undecided. 0%
860 people have voted so far.
I submit that 860 people who had zero influence to change things.
Last edited:
What he said.
CRSIII
NES Member
I love it! I want one!
GaryO
NES Member
Boston Patriot, Marjory Egan makes me sick. When she can't write anything positive, she will tear apart people based on looks or what they wear. A friend of my wife was a witness during a trial of a brutal murderer. She was on the stand because she was a neighbor and all Egan could comment on was how poorly this woman was dressed.
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