Denver Day of Resistance protest (courtesy Dan Baum)

Is this too small a sample to draw conclusions? Or should we chalk it up to poor planning and/or a lack of communication? Today’s scheduled .2/23 “Day of Resistance” demonstrations were intended to allow The People of the Gun to “stand together in defiance to protect the right that protects ALL of our rights, the 2nd Amendment.” Gun Guys author Dan Baum attended the event in Denver and forwarded the above pic. He estimates the crowd at “maybe 300.” Sparse at best, judging from his photo. Then again, with Colorado appearing to be a virtual lost cause, maybe enthusiasm for public diplays of resistance has been dampened in the Front Range. Did you attend a DoR event? And if you did, what was your impression . . . ardor or apathy?

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77 COMMENTS

  3. There are potential problems with a DoR gathering in Denver, since Denver bans both open carry and “assault weapons”.

    Then there’s the fact that a bunch of people in the Denver area (myself included) are spending the day preparing for tonight’s/tomorrow’s blizzard.

  4. I went to the stephenville texas event and I was pleasantly suprised by turnout. There were probably 200 people there in a small town. The speakers were good and it was a nice day. win win in my book

  5. There was a pro 2nd event in Huntsville, AL today. Our Congressman, some state senators and a few others spoke. Attendance was about 1700. The message was clear that AL will not be going the way of Colorado, NY, NJ etc any time soon.

    • I want to clarify that the Huntsville event wasn’t associated with the “day of resistance” thing. It was run by a local civic group.

  6. If that’s the case, it is probably mostly due to poor planning and communication.

    I keep fairly close tabs on these things and didn’t even hear about it until roughly 10 days prior. A few days later, with less than a week to go, the people in charge of organizing the event in my state backed out and so to the best of my knowledge there was no 2/23 rally in my state. Another guy who helped organize the successful Jan 19 rally told me he had attempted to contact the 2/23 organizers and did not even get a reply.

    • SEE? I had a bad feeling about these people, nearly from the beginning. Nothing tangible, but my instincts have proven to be pretty reliable.

  7. Not a single gathering in the Commonwealth of Virginia; I’ve been checking regularly, and one never appeared on the list. Could it be distrust of the organizers, I wonder? I’ve known about this for nearly a month.

  8. Didn’t hear about it until too late. Been dealing with the blitzkrieg, focusing on the multiple rights attacks across the nation which tends to dominate my spare time. Didn’t see any email notices about this from RMGO or NRA….or not that I recall or can find.

    • Same here as far as having most of my spare time and money being consumed by the multi front attacks. This day of resistance turned into small weak beer. Flat as well. I hesitate to criticize as I did not do anything to help, but what kind of sincerity reading do you guys get from the organizers? Do you feel it was it a SNAFU or purposeful failure? I feel bad even asking this question, but the underhandedness displayed by the O’grabbers is mind numbing.

  9. CO is not a lost cause! they are just now starting to slip. ca and ny… well they are the definition of a lost cause.

    • Crock – I live in Colorado and was at the rally. These measures will pass in the Democrat controlled Senate and there is no chance our paper-mache governor, Lickenpooper will veto it.

      I will probably wait to see how it does in the courts but will most likely be leaving Colorado if it stands, like Magpul.

  11. A nice turnout in Mt Juliet. TN today! I was starting to loose my enthusiasm after attending the last gathering at the state capital in Nashville, but todays rally helped boost morale some. It was a gorgrous spring like day in the Nashville area and it being a weekend i think that helped. Still , for such a pro-gun state as Tennessee with as many hunters and shooting sports folk as there are I am not seeing the numbers I think it is going to take to make an impact on the public/media.

    • Not trying to offend, but “loose” is not the same word as “lose”. “Loose” is the opposite of “tight”, while “lose” is, well, to come up missing something. They’re not even homonyms. You’re far from alone; I come across this nearly every day.

      • Believe it or not I was an English major – I have been doing a lot of posting lately and sometimes I am in too much of a hurry to proofread. I know the difference – after re-reading it the whole thing was pretty rough. I could have said Nashville, and Tennessee about 3 less times as well as spelling ‘gorgeous’ correctly. =P Thanks for calling my attention to it! I could probably use some coffee. =P

  12. Read about it on The Gun Wire, but when I went to their website it was such a poorly put together POS that it looked like it was being hosted by children or the government.

    Either way, most bills in the majority of states haven’t been voted on, and in the three states that are making news – we have already made our voices known and nobody cared.

    I think most are waiting for the rest of the states and the federal government to get sorted out – when that happens we will know what we might be resisting to and have a more focused vision.

  13. I only heard about it a week ago and unfortuatley while I have plenty of vacation and sick time, I do not have a job where I can call out easily.

  14. Milwaukee Wis. looked liked the million mom march, around 50 people. It was cold with a nasty wind though. I spoke to a great couple that drove up from Illinois. I,m glad I went even though I froze with a snowmobile suit on. A congressman spoke briefly & he was right in line the message here. A lone black guy was there that had a sign that basically said just because he was black that didn’t mean he bought bo’s sh.t. The local news had 2 cameras, Randy

  15. I say this was poorly planned and I just heard about it this week. Need something in DC with Ted Nugent and Bruce Willis!

  16. I went to the one in Dallas. I bet there were around 300 people there more or less. It ended up being more of a tea party rally than a pro second amendment rally. not necessarily a bad thing, but they kept putting off the, “if we can just get more conservatives in power, that will solve the problems” vibe. Don’t get me wrong, I truly hate liberal policies, but the two party paradigm mentality gets very old, and unless a lot of texas conservatives open up a bit to other demographics like imigrants, the democrats are liable to take over the state.

  17. I went to the event in Northern Kentucky. There were more than 1,000 in attendance. Our local congressman, Thomas Massie spoke as did 4 local sheriffs that had written letters to the Federal Government explaining their views on unconstitutional laws (i.e. no thanks). Was a great event and I’m glad I went.

    • Yep, my estimate was at least 700-800. Official attendance was stated at over 1,100 in the paper this morning.

    • I too was in attendance Saturday. I was the person that was referenced by the constable for wearing my shirt the read “I carry a gun BECAUSE a cop is too heavy”. Great event and I hope there are more to follow.

  18. It’s all PR, people. The turnout was SIGNIFICANTLY better than
    many protest the antis routinely hold. I’m also willing to bet
    that there were zero paid protestors. The MSM, however, never
    actually report numbers or even show uncut footage of a crowd.
    Example: on Jan 20 the Huffington post reported a number of
    rallies across the country. Only vague numbers were recorded
    from “a few dozen” to “large crowds”. The single picture linked
    to had only three people in it. Even if 30,000 had shown up the
    MSM would marginalize the protest if reported at all.

    Here’s a link to the article I’m referring to:
    http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/01/20/gun-rights_n_2516138.html

  19. 2/23 was horribly planned, and their site was less than informative. It was also gimmicky from the start.

  20. We were busy doing a gun show in scenic Whitehall, Montana where five hundred people crammed into a 70 table gun show and carry their guns (not loaded) and where freedom is still alive with private enterprise and common sense, and a universal hatred of gun banners. We would welcome all right thinking refugees, all others can stay in your cesspool of your own making.

  21. I heard about it yesterday. Too many rally’s happening. We need a few SUPER STORM HUGE rally’s and not a bunch of little ones.

  22. Went to a nice little event in Melbourne, FL today. Actually in Eau Gallie, an older suburb of Melb. Agree with those who noted that getting the word out seemed to be a problem for the folks organizing these events.

    Still, there were right around 170 people at the event I attended. Local politicians spoke and some fairly articulate regular folks too. At this stage of the game I think an awful lot of folks are hungry for what more they can do beyond simply writing letters. I’m thinking that a massive rally in DC would be timely now. But the word has got to get out to folks, and coordination of travel, etc. would sure help the thing be better attended. These anti-gun politicians really need to see millions of us out there in the street. If we can’t get their attention soon then I guess it’s time for the tar and feathers …

  23. Gun Rights Across America is planning a Sheriffs Outreach Program on 3/13/13.
    All the info is on Facebook. This is something we are trying to get every city/county in the US behind for support.
    Talk to your head LEO and see if they will or will not support bans/confiscations.
    Check it out please as we all need to know what to expect from our local LEO’s.

  24. The event in Norristown (close to Philly) drew somewhere between one and two hundred people by my estimate. Not what I was hoping having come from 30 miles away, but could have been worse for a rainy, 40 degree day. We had an open carry march, which at first made me about as self-concious as having my privates hang out given Philly cops’ attitudes toward carry. However, it was all very peaceful, and some cops doing traffic control even gave us the thumbs up. Not bad at all.

    However, we didn’t seem to rate a news van, or even any reporters beyond one young woman who represented a blog (at least that I could see).

    • ATTN PA residents, what I regard as the most important news at the Norristown rally:

      http://www.repmetcalfe.com/NewsItem.aspx?NewsID=16232

      Rep. Daryl Melcalfe is sponsoring a bill (similar to those in Wyoming and other states) that would make federal gun conrol laws unenforcible in PA. See the above link for info on the bill and a rally to support it in Harrisburg on Sat., April 23rd at 10 AM.

  25. We had ca.1000 people at the rally at the civic center in Huntsville.AL. One congressman,6 state legislators,2 area talk radio DJ’s, a regional driector and a board member from NRA, the Chief Deputy Sherriff and other special speakers. About 20 exhibitors. Coverage by at 2 local tv stations. Biggest pro-gun and one of the largest ever political rallies in city history. All together, a great 3 hours.

  27. I live in Colorado and only heard of this last night. It doesn’t matter though; the Tea Party, OWS, the “million” this or that protests, not one of them had any real influence over the politicians. The pols only listen to money and violence. We, the lowly voting peons, are merely an annoyance that must be placated every other year or so.

  28. The event was scheduled for 11:00 am to 1:00 pm.

    The EXIF data on the photo shows that the picture

    http://ttag.zippykidcdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/02/Denver-Day-of-Resistance-protest-courtesy-Dan-Baum.jpg

    was taken on 2013-02-23 14:23:12 (2:23 pm) with an iPhone 4.

    The Denver Day of Resistance was scheduled for 11:00 am to 1:00 pm, so this picture was taken 1 1/2 hours after the scheduled end of of the event.

    I was there from 11:00 am to 1:00 pm. While it did look sparse at 11:00 am — I estimated about 300 people, and was disappointed — people kept trickling in for the entire two hours. By 1:00 pm I estimated the crowd at about 800. While I’m horrible at estimating these type of things, it was a lot more crowded than the picture above shows.

    I’m not even sure who the person in the purple sweat shirt is. I didn’t see him/her speak, so this picture was not taken during the main even.

    It’s also noteworthy that there are no “Free Bradley Manning” protesters across the street, as there was during the “Day of Resistance” event.

    • > The EXIF data on the photo shows that the picture
      > was taken on 2013-02-23 14:23:12 (2:23 pm)
      > with an iPhone 4.

      CORRECTION —

      The EXIF data of the photo is

      Aperture Value: 2.971
      Brightness Value: 8.179
      Color Space: sRGB
      Components Configuration: 0, 0, 0, 0
      Date Time Digitized: Feb 23, 2013 11:01:49 AM
      Date Time Original: Feb 23, 2013 11:01:49 AM
      Exif Version: 2.2.1
      Exposure Mode: Auto exposure
      Exposure Program: Normal program
      Exposure Time: 1/588
      Flash: Flash did not fire, compulsory flash mode

      The TIFF data of the photo is

      Date Time: Feb 23, 2013 2:23:12 PM
      Make: Apple
      Model: iPhone 4
      Orientation: 1 (Normal)
      Resolution Unit: inches
      Software: Adobe Photoshop CS3 Macintosh
      X Resolution: 72
      Y Resolution: 72

      It was taken right at the start of the event, and then modified at 2:23 PM.

  29. > I’m not even sure who the person in the purple sweat shirt is.
    > I didn’t see him/her speak, so this picture was not
    > taken during the main even.

    Another thing I just realized:

    There’s no podium in the photo. There was during the event.

    UPDATE: OK, that may by the very edge of the podium in the left side of the photo. I can’t tell. Perhaps it would help if more photos were sent in.

    UPDATE 2: Local blogger Billll (with 4 Ls) writes that

    The Denver rally ran to about 800 very enthusiastic people.

    No one had heard anything about the OFA rally that supposedly happened yesterday.

  30. By 11:30 we had some 800 people with some enthusiastic speakers and a properly warmed up crowd. We had 2 legislators offering encouragement as well. The event was over by 1:10 and the speakers had been removed by 1:30 so the time stamp is off. This looks more like it was taken before things got started. The sun was out toward the end.

  31. My son and I attended the event at Oregon’s state capital.
    I found a link to day of resistance and sent them my information, so I could be connected with our local organizer. I received one email reminding me of the event by “Day of Resistance” about Wednesday.
    I shared with probably over a hundred people during the week I was planning on attending the event (you should try this some time, the conversation was very interesting and I now think the liberal anti gun media are winning this war of words).
    I was very surprised to see somewhere between 200-300 people at this event. I attended a rally at our capital last month that showed 2000-3000, very motivated people, out in near freezing temperatures.
    I don’t think that gun owners understand what is at risk, and I think there was a lack of organization. I actually informed a very good local gun shop owner on Friday, after work, about the event.
    Gun owners need to connect, use modern media, and take responsibility, or we will lose our rights.

    Troy Lancaster

  32. I think there were some other events in Colorado at the same time so that takes away from the single event impact. It felt to me like there were more people there than the picture indicates … we got there a little late and people kept trickling in over the two hours. Also there are more steps down in the background and a number of people were there and all the way out to the street.

  33. We had a Day of Resistance on my Dads ranch with some friends here in western, ND. Good day to be me.

  34. Crazy thought here, but how about letting folks know about these things, like, some time BEFORE they actually happen?

    Seriously, I check this site, Drudge Report, and various news outlets on a daily basis. Still, the first I hear of these things is when they’re over, and how come nobody was there?!?

    I don’t do Facebook, Myspace, or any of that nonsense…I simply don’t have time to manage 5,000 “friends” that get upset when I don’t ‘like’ their newest puppy picture or that they are having lunch at Olive Garden. I really do have better things to do. So if I have to sift through all the child molesters, crazies, and other pathetic creatures that believe every moment of their existence must be documented on line, just to find out when these things are going on, well, that’s not going to happen.

    CS

  35. Yeah, I went to the DoR in Worcester, MA today, in Lincoln Square (a fairly busy intersection). About 110-130 folks showed up. It was sponsored by the Worcester and Knox Trail Tea Party groups. I stayed for an hour and a half. Everyone was in good cheer and there was a lot of horn honking from cars driving by. Not many birds were flipped by drivers in disagreement. I had hoped for a significantly better turnout but isn’t that the problem with many 2A supporters? They’re just not the militant/picketing types. That needs to change.

    If you live in an anti state, and your legislature graces you with the opportunity to speak up during hearings (unlike the bastards in NY), avail yourselves and make your voices heard and your presence known. We must all hang together today for surely we will shall all be hung separately tomorrow otherwise.

  36. I didn’t know about this until I read about it on the BBC website earlier today. Following the link here to the list of rallies, I see that there wasn’t one in Austin anyway–which is kind of odd, considering it’s the capital of Texas…

  37. The rally went very nicely here in Boise. I’m not really sure how many showed up, but I’m going to guess somewhere around 400 or more. Very nice assembly of people from various different backgrounds and ideologies. The problem with all of the rallies seems to be little or no exposure from the media. There was some media at the rally today, but it looked like most of the pictures were being taken by non media types, namely those of us who came to support the cause. Our local news didn’t seem to say anything until late last night and even then, it wasn’t very lengthy. Oh well, I guess if you live in Idaho, people assume we’re all constitutionalists or whatever. 😉 Had a few conversations with newly enlightened 2A rights attendees. Their big issues with firearms, at least until recently, was that they were unsure about how to learn the tool and get safety training. There were all kinds of firearms instructors at the rally and I’ll bet I saw about a 100 cards get passed out to people for training programs. I’m sure this was an unintended side effect of this kind of get together, but I feel it was a very welcome sight. No one should be afraid to learn how to use/own/store a firearm. Some people just never had any exposure to them and have been led to believe the misinformation about their uses/roles. It’s always nice to see our vets out, but it was especially nice to see the WWII vets going around and talking to people about their memories/thoughts on these kinds of topics.

    • Look at your electoral map by county. NE. only has one blue county so that would be the only place to resist.

      The people in Sydney are not going to go along with this garbage if it comes out of Omaha.

  39. There was not one in Columbus, Ohio, which was a pretty big oversight since we’re the capitol city, so I did not attend. I would have liked to, but didn’t feel like driving to Cincinnati or Akron (Portage) would have made much of a difference to the debate. I’ve been to the others that are here in town and will do so again if there is a call to protest.

  40. We’re still trying to herd cats! There’s lots of passion, not yet enough coordination. The court challenges are in the works. People are working to mount political challenges in 2014. The legislative battle has just been joined. This is far from over.

  43. Looks like folks have been attending legislative hearings in various States, which has helped in some of them. As for rallies, the coming one in Albany, NY seems is the one to watch. It is on Thursday though.

  44. I went to the rally in Lewiston, Idaho. There were a good 300 people, at least. Not a huge crowd, but respectable considering the town and the venue.

    People had some pretty cool guns there, too; four or five people carrying AR’s, probably a dozen or so (mostly age 60+) with Garands (a couple even with bayonets), a couple of tricked-out varmint rifles, and dozens of people open-carrying handguns.

    Unfortunately, it didn’t seem very organized. The speakers went on for…ev…er, I didn’t see a schedule or printed program of any sort, and even the people on the podium didn’t seem to know what was supposed to happen next. The Facebook page had said there’d be a march to the county courthouse after the rally in the park, but toward the end the crowd just kind of faded away; the last speaker finished with an audience of about 25 people who were mostly just standing around talking to each other.

    My daughter surprised me by volunteering to come with me, and also surprised me by sticking it out to the bitter end. I think she was intrigued by the idea of being in a protest march — but the march never happened.

    On our way back home (after visiting a couple of stores with empty ammo shelves) we saw the remnants of the rally — about 10 dedicated people who had somehow gathered outside the courthouse on their own.

    Very anticlimactic.

    But I did get to have some really good conversations with the young lass. We talked about the Second Amendment vs. gun control, how important it is that we have the right to gather and tell our government — loudly and in public — that they’re wrong. And if you think about it, there aren’t many places in this world where several hundred armed people could gather to protest their government’s actions and nobody gets shot or arrested.

    The event itself left a lot to be desired, and I don’t know that this “Day of Resistance” thing did much at all in the political realm, but at least the time spent with my kid was priceless.

  46. Since the major complaint was publicity before the event, leading to relatively poor turnout, why don’t we start planning for the next one. If we want to stay with cartridge designations for dates May 5/6 is a Sunday/Monday (5.56) giving about 2 months to plan. For longer term planning September 19 (9×19) is a Thursday. not as useful but with enough notice most could schedule a vacation day. The gun grabbers need to know that we are not going away or giving up.

  47. I am in CO and didn’t hear about it until it was too late to get there. Regardless, it’s still important to write and call. In particular, it’s important to keep the pressure on the governor. Don’t let up.

    • Gov. Lickenpooper has already gotten his orders from Washington. He is just a shill for Obama. No way he vetoes this garbage.

  48. We may want to consider the source here. From Amazon: “Dan Baum is both a lifelong gun guy and a Jewish Democrat who grew up in suburban New Jersey…” Mr. Baum may not have stayed for the entire rally or might be trying to downplay the turnout.

    I was at the rally in Denver yesterday with a group of eight freedom friends and there were a lot more people than shown in this photo.

    My major complaints were the lack of media present (shocker), all the old white dudes, the god talk and the appearance of a lack of organization. For the most part it was a caricature of how the main stream media attempts to portray the NRA and gun owners in general.

    Here were two highlights of the rally for me: Evan Todd spoke and it was very encouraging to see a victim of a mass shooting that turned toward freedom rather than tyranny. Senator Vicki Marble asked all the ladies to join her on the steps for her speech and there were quite a few of them, many of them were holding signs.

    Some better photos on my blog: http://trainhardshootfast.com/denver-day-of-resistance/

  49. I was there, didn’t look like this single pic. More misleading irresponsible journalism…post the time of the photo, then let people consider, rally started at 11, some people were told noon…this photo is not representative of the participation.

  50. “Days of resistance” are the sort of flimsy political theatre that most of us don’t have time for. IMO it reeks of occutardiness.

    If it had been attached to some concrete thing–a particular piece of legislation in each state, for instance, and rallies in the state capitols on a weekday to be heard by the lege-bots…well, then maybe I’d’ve considered it.

    I/we had better things to do. Like resist by buying more guns and ammo at a big gun show here on the Wet Side…and take three newbies to that show. The latter so they could see that “gun show attendees” are a diverse and friends-n-family-based bunch o folks, and that we all are united by RKBA/2A despite specific differences in life choices, politics, religion or other.

  51. At the peak, I would say that there were at least 500 people present. They were enthusiastic and well-mannered–and mad! Here are my pictures, which certainly give the lie to the sparse crowd shown in the featured photograph:

    http://sdrv.ms/Yon9eS

    At the very least, the people–and the judges–who will be dealing with these proposed laws know that a strong backlash is forming

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