Let’s be fair about this. The women-centric Gun Rights Across America protest in which the young man above participated is the only pro-gun rights demonstration I’ve seen that makes a Moms Demand Action for Gun Sense in America rally look like a One Direction concert. Then again . . . Would it be churlish of me to suggest that just as the mainstream media looks for camera angles that hide the size of MDA’s mini-mobs they might look for shots that minimize the popularity of a pro-gun get-together? Anyway, dallasnews.com reports that the women were joined by . . .
members of Come and Take It, which is pushing to legalize the ‘open carry’ of holstered handguns, and Let’s Roll Texas, the local arm of an organization that says it’s working to uphold the Constitution.
They plan to lobby the Texas Legislature in 2015 to end gun-free zones, which include schools and military bases. Texas has some of the least-restrictive gun laws in the country, but openly carrying handguns is illegal.
A fact that comforts some: people who were shocked – shocked I tell you! – by the demonstration at the spot where President Kennedy met his maker.
Tourists stopped to watch the protesters standing on the grassy knoll in the plaza where President John F. Kennedy was assassinated in 1963.
“This is terrifying,” said Patricia Bond of Snohomish, Wash. “We have guns in our house, but we don’t walk around with them and carry flags. … I’m from a completely different part of the country. This is shocking.”
You want irony? You know how Moms Demand Action for Gun Sense in America jefe Shannon Watts says the massacre at Sandy Hook inspired her to work for civilian disarmament? Same thing here, only opposite.
[Tammy] Koontz and [Carson] Davis said they became more active in the open-carry movement after the massacre at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn., where a 20-year-old fatally shot 20 children and six staff members.
“Children, by law, are required to go to school, and those are gun-free zones,” Davis said. “Anyone who is a responsible adult should be able to carry in school. The likelihood [of shootings] would drop to zero.”
Koontz and Davis, who also helps with a Facebook page called 1 Million Moms & Women for the Second Amendment, planned the demonstration to coincide with Mother’s Day.
“I think we got the message out there,” Koontz said. “I’m happy with it.”
And why not? They’re doing it for the children! I wonder if MSNBC will help spread their happiness, as they do for Shannon. Probably not.
Dear Patricia Bond
I just bet you don’t carry a flag. I bet you don’t even say the pledge or hold your hand over your heart during the national anthem. Take your America-hating buttocks out of the U.S,
So? Some people don’t pledge “allegiance” (funny word for a “free” society) or drape themselves in flags, pageantry, or histrionics.
Fun fact: The Pledge of Allegiance was written in August 1892 by Francis Bellamy (1855–1931), who was a Baptist minister, a Christian socialist
It was also originally meant to be an all-purpose pledge, to be used in various countries.
Some even liken excessive flag-worship as a kind of idolatry. Wait, that would be me!
“I don’t get all choked up about yellow ribbons and American flags. I see them as symbols, and I leave them to the symbol-minded.” ~ George Carlin
That’s pretty good Knightofbob, or rather, a good one by Carlin.
Symbols are what people use to identify themselves to each other; it is what makes a peoples cultural identity. Clothing styles, language, memory of ones ancestors and their achievements. All help to create a sense of shared purpose, a sense of being part of something bigger than ones individual self.
The whole push by the statists/liberal/progressives are to teach people to be ashamed to be an American and the symbols that identify them as being an American. It helps the powers that be if groups of people are fractured, “multicultural”, not unified in a specific group identity. In this case, being a proud American. Divide and conquer, it is a tactic used all through history.
You knightofbob; are a product of this type of conditioning; you have been brainwashed into believing that being a flag waving proud American is bad, uncool, unsophisticated.
Which makes you easier to control by the powers that be. I to was a product of this conditioning, I was embarrassed the first time I put out an American flag. Now; understanding the methods of this type of conditioning, and it’s end purpose; I fly the Flag as a “symbol” of defiance; I will not be a tool of those that wish to dominate, control and be our masters.
@Thomas R- You are absolutely right sir, I too have seen and experienced this exact phenomenon. I too grew up in occupied territory now thankfully live in the south where I proudly display not only the flag, but the Betsy Ross, and the Gadsden. I heard that in some places in NY they actually tried ban both the Betsy Ross and Gadsden (unsuccessfully).
Free psychoanalysis by @ThomasR = worth exactly what you paid for it, I reckon.
Bonus fun fact: Here is the English drinking song upon which our national anthem is based: same melody, different lyrics.
It’s got wine. It’s got women. And it’s a song!
I don’t say the Pledge because A. I am a free man in a “free” country B. Pledging allegence to a flag is patently stupid and C. It’s jingoistic tripe. I reserve the right to be pissed off at my country and try and change things.
Blind alegence is bullshit. See A above.
My country, right or wrong. When right, to keep her right. When wrong, to make her right.
I’ll take the pledge anytime and sort of wonder about those who wont. As long as our goal is ‘liberty and justice for all’ I’m on board. These may be dark times, but the same system that got us here can get us out.
Ditto. I’ve always seen “flag” as representing the republic formed by the constitution. I’ll always swear allegiance to THAT republic, regardless of the current group of people that happen to be running it.
I’m patriotic to a set of ideals that are codified in the constitution of the US. We have strayed from those principles and I’m highly interested in a return to them, but that isn’t to say that I don’t love and support my country. The current administration makes it’s awkward to rally around the US but it’s still my country and the next election is only 2 years away.
I’m increasingly impressed that we’re no longer anything even resembling free and haven’t been for a long time, still I think the Union is worth saving, if we can return it to the principles of the founders. Come November we have a good chance to truly end the agenda of the current regime and begin restoring this country to it’s founding principles.
blind acceptance can be hazardous to your health. and i have a blister packed swarf collector that goes on an electric drill.
Heh.
Hey, I’m from the same “different part of the country” as Patricia Bond! And I do carry guns (though usually not openly) and wave the flag. Strange, that. Ah, but I see the difference now: she’s from that thin strip of western WA that shelters most of our state’s wussified lefties.
I wonder if she realizes that open carry is already legal in the great state of Washington?
I live just one county south of Ms. Bond. Even the lefties I know around here aren’t very anti-gun.
I don’t own a flag. I refuse pledge my allegiance to a flag, and especially to a corrupt, increasingly fascist government. However, I am smart enough to know the difference between patriotism and jingoism.
You know what else Patricia Bond doesn’t do? Open her eyes. I live near Snohomish, and if you pay attention you occasionally see an open carry (legal in WA!), there are plenty of flags around, and more than a few people that might find the fact that she is “terrified” a little ridiculous.
Ah, the pledge pushed on children too young to really understand the ramifications… something that, from any objective point of view, would be right in place in Pyongyang.
Actually, it is not customary to place your hand over your heart for the National Anthem. That would be the pledge. Only the removal of hats by men for the Anthem. I don’t have a problem with the pledge and I wish they would bring it back in Public School. It helps to remind people that America is a Republic, which Democrats conveniently forget.
Yeah, I mean, why would Americans carry guns and wave flags, I mean, what the F*** right? its not like were in…. oh wait, in a country started by…. oh wait… and freedom… independence…. liberty….oh those words…. they mean something?
The sign and the child holding I would think would shock the uninformed and uninvolved. It does me and I am neither.
Same here. Also, upon a cursory glance (which is what most will give) it looks like an anti sign. All that stands out are “gun”, “killing zone”, and the kid holding the sign.
The antis are, sadly, much more savvy at that sort of thing.
Have you been checked for color blindness?
No. I also don’t have troll blindness. Reading comprehension much?
Dude, the biggest word on the sign is “FORCED” and it’s f’ing red.
I’m not trolling (whatever that means these days), I’m just looking out for you.
@Swarf,
“Dude”, I didn’t say that I didn’t see “FORCED”, I was talking about how “gun” and “killing zone” would stand out most, impact-wise; I didn’t mean stand out most visually/font size-wise.
Calm down; I see a few posts up that you and I agree on flag-waving, allegiance-pledging shenanigans.
It’s poor messaging, not color blindness.
No one except their parents force kids to go to public school. Home school or private school is an option. And the sooner we choose them the sooner we can be done with the govt. indoctrination centers otherwise known as public school.
I hear this line a lot. ‘Take your kids out of school! Homeschool them before it’s too late!’
Hey, brainiac: Most people don’t have the time or money to teach their kids full time at the cost of their real career. If the schools are bad, FIX THEM! If you truly have zero influence in what your children learn, how can you call your country a democracy?
“Hey, brainiac: Most people don’t have the time or money to teach their kids full time at the cost of their real career.”
Sorry, but BULL.
You are essentially saying your “real career” is more important to you than the education of your children.
You want to know one of the gutsiest things I ever saw? A woman told her husband that she was not working so she could homeschool their children. She went on to tell him that she did not care what sort of trailer or shack she had to live in to be able to “afford not to work.”
The dirty little secret is that most middle class families with two working parents are actually financially worse off by both parents working, and that’s not even counting the spiritual and ‘moral’ costs to the family and the greater community.
Here’s the real scoop for you…and if you don’t want to believe me, take a gander at some of the writing and research by John Taylor Gatto…you are NOT going to “fix” the public schools. Why, you ask?
Because they were never even designed to “educate.” That’s not their mission. They were designed from the word “go” to indoctrinate and produce good proles for the machine. Who and what the machine has changed in recent decades, but the institution still serves its own mission without one iota of regard for the life and future of YOUR CHILD.
Here’s another dirty little secret…literacy in the US was actually HIGHER in the early 1800’s than it ever has been since compulsory public education begin.
Let me repeat, so hopefully it will soak in. You will NOT “fix” the schools. They are NOT broken in terms of what they were designed to do. They may seem broken by your metric, but that is simply because you misunderstand the true, underlying mission of public schools: institutionalization.
Homeschool your children and set them truly free…and, yourself, actually. It is BEYOND liberating and one huge, hell of a lot more rewarding and more fun than any carrot-on-a-stick “career.”
You’re 100% correct about the failure-by-design nature of the (Prussian model-influenced) indoctrination-based public school system.
However, most of us need our “real careers” to pay rent, buy food, pay bills, save money, etc, for ourselves and our families.
You are correct about the purpose of public schools. But just because that was the intention when they were created, you’re saying that change is impossible due to their initial mission? That’s pretty damn sad, especially when most people in this country (regardless of political affiliation) are unhappy with public schools, so it’s not even like public support is against changing them. Jesus, you’re cynical….
me ol’ lady stays home and keeps a house. we don’t home school- by the time they’re ten they know more than their parents anyhow. i feel sorry for all of their home schooled friends. and so do they.
but tell me: how would having a second income make things ‘actually financially worse’ around here?
@JR: you are exactly right re the mission of the schools, etc. Vhyrus, Fler: It’s a matter of priorities, we made having one parent at home to do the home schooling a priority. At our best, we were pretty much at the median income nationwide, @50k/annum. Much of the time we were less than that. So it can be done, without being much better than average, income-wise. Maybe some–even a lot–of people have no such choice, but more people do have that choice than you might think. Probably most, since we could do it on an average income. But it’s a helluva lot easier just to pack them off to the government indoctrination center and say, well, our school isn’t that bad, not like all those other schools.
@cmeat; Why in the world would you feel sorry for home-schooled kids? That old, hoary “they don’t get socialized” garbage? When the kids in public schools are artificially locked up all day in age-segregated settings? Mostly in the same old building, same old seats day in and day out? So they can barely converse with someone outside their own clique? If you need to feel sorry for someon, do it for someone who is worse off than you, not better. And the way a second income can be actually a loss of income is for the expenses associated with the second job (work clothes, extra transportation, food at work, child-care expenses that otherwise would not be incurred) to outpace the income from the second job. Not an uncommon scenario.
“but tell me: how would having a second income make things ‘actually financially worse’ around here?”
Lots of reasons.
Tax brackets, for one.
The cost of having a job, for another. How much more do you pay for wardrobe, car, etc so the second person can work?
A few years ago, there was a study (I know, I know…just bear with me for the sake of argument) that the second parent had to earn $85,000 per year just to break even compared to staying at home.
So…how many second wage earners are making that?
If you JUST look at the $$ amount on your W2, you are being very short sighted. There are costs associated with two earner households, and you cannot ignore those.
Sit back and do a real, coldly objective cost-benefit analysis and you might just be surprised. Factor in the intangible, hard-to-quantify factors of raising children (that you presumably chose to bring into the world) and the balance changes even more.
To get to your question directly: two earners earning more gross does not mean more net wealth gained for the family.
Robert, you’ve made a GREAT point ….
There might be a whole heap ton of families that cannot afford to homeschool. And, you know what.
That is a GREAT argument for “school choice” based tax breaks and vouchers and special scholarships. How about we make it financially viable for folks of all income levels to choose…if they do so choose as I would hope they will … to homeschool.
Even if some do not, the number brought out of the public school system renders the student : teacher there more favorable, so … win : win, right?
What’s the downside?
I’ll tell you the downside…control. And that’s not cynicism.
Prove me wrong, and I’ll be happy to wear it.
For ever family that chooses homeschooling, students in public school should benefit. There are more resources and more teacher attention available. Homeschoolers do not, at present, generally get tax breaks, so they continue to pay for education they are not using. So, the education should improve for the rest.
So, what’s the complaint?
Your estimate of the original design of “public schools” is just ignorant, nearly beyond belief. Driving around south CO a couple decades ago, I ran into a one-room schoolhouse that had been standing for over 100 years, not another building anywhere in sight. Erected by a diffuse community and taught by a high school graduate paid in room and board, THAT was what original public schools were, and might occasionally school someone past the 4th grade. A hundred years earlier than that, there were pioneer schools all over the country, with no central planning at all. I don’t know what conspiracy you’re discussing, or that might be going on today, but in the 18th century schools were schools, not training camps for liberals or whatever you imagine.
It does NOT take seven hours of instruction a day to give a child a far superior education to that of public schools; in fact, it’s often done in 2 hours or less a day.
This is true.
In so many ways, homeschooling is not just more effective, it’s more efficient.
One additional point: ALL the education “experts” claim they want more parental involvement. So…what’s more parental involvement than just homeschooling to begin with?
Actually the state has a heavy hand in the force department. I frankly can’t recall one useful thing I learned after the 8th grade but since my parents had to work I was forced to spend 4 years in a prison like environment wasting valuable time. I couldn’t expect my parents to quit their jobs to home school me and yet I wasn’t free to leave the extremely poor school I was in and seek better opportunities elsewhere because of the state. As a commenter down stream has mentioned, we need to fix the schools, not abandon them. The current state of affairs is unconscionable, but at the same time not having a public education system isn’t conscionable either.
“No one except their parents force kids to go to public school.”
Aren’t there laws mandating sending your kids to the government propaganda mill?
I’m childfree, so have no dogs in that fight, but I am a radical libertarian loon, and believe that the problem with the schools is government. The problem with almost everything is government, but oh well.
As far as education, I was home pre-schooled – my earliest memory is of sitting in my Mom’s lap, with a book in my lap, Mom reading from it, moving her finger along the page pointing to each word as she read it. Essentially, I learned to read before I learned to talk!
If nothing else, read to your kids early!
MDA makes use of toddler aged and early childhood aged kids. No offense to my younger brethren, but they don’t even have an interest in having much of an opinion on these things, let alone the ability to form one. Which is why for any group it is in bad taste to parade children under the age of like 7 around as if they have a legit thought out opinion. As you get to the ages of 7-9 (around the age of reason for kids) you can have more confidence in our younger brethren especially if they have parents that embrace open mindedness and research.
Texas does not have anywhere near the least restrictive gun laes in the country. Texas is in the middle of rhe pack by virtue of the antigun states in the Noetheast and midatlantic. If you only consider states west of the Mississippi, their true peers, Texas is near the bottom. I think only California and Minnesota are worse.
This++. I don’t know why RF and others make Texas out to be Guntopia.
Have to agree, and I live in Texas. But I do think culturally Texas is a lot more gun-friendly than the laws suggest.
Whoah, don’t put MN gun laws in the same sentence with CA. MN is arguably better than TX. For example: “no guns allowed” signs do not have the force of law. MN has a “Permit-to-carry” which means exactly that (concealed or open). Permit holders may carry in local government buildings (State preemption), churches, bars (and you may even consume an adult beverage if you keep your BAC under .04). MN prohibits suppressors; that’s the only thing I think TX has on us. The Democrats control both houses of the Legislature and the Governor and no anti-gun bills left committee in 2013. This year Bloomberg got involved and all they could muster is the feel-good / doesn’t really change anything domestic violence bill.
Ohio kicks Texas’s rear in the gun friendly department but never gets a mention. No open carry, really? Texas is only a few steps ahead of a slave state when it comes to guns. If you like guntopia, Texas isn’t your friend.
Texas laws are acceptable and enforcement is excellent (ie, gun friendly cops), but certainly not exemplary, that would be Vermont.
Maybe I’ll make a few similar signs for the “Welcome to Maryland” or “Welcome to the District of Columbia” ones they have on the highways into the this area.
Look at this baby!!!
“We have guns in our house, but we don’t walk around with them and carry flags. … I’m from a completely different part of the country.”
Yes you are. People who walk around with flags and guns are from America. You, Ms. Bond, are not.
Why do I think that I’ve seen Ms. Bond’s name here before?
I think pro2A women are in a unique position to counter MDA in this manner, and I do whatever I can on Twitter on a regular basis along this line.
“Then again . . . Would it be churlish of me to suggest that just as the mainstream media looks for camera angles that hide the size of MDA’s mini-mobs they might look for shots that minimize the popularity of a pro-gun get-together? Anyway, dallasnews.com reports that the women were joined by . . .”
I know from personal experience that the press does do this regularly. I attended a Tea Party rally in San Jose, CA the first year the Tea party began. There were between 800 and 1,500 people at the rally. (I am not very good at estimating crowd sizes, but the people would have filled a 1/4 acre if pressed close together.) There were a few prominent politicians in attendance, and no trouble of any kind by the Tea Party folks. They even cleaned the park (picked up all their trash) before they left.
Here is what the press reported about this event. One of the local newspapers showed a picture of four people standing in a place completely outside the rally area over an hour before the rally started. One of the local TV News Hours showed a small group of counter-demonstrators that were cordoned off by the police to prevent them from getting onto the rally’s stage. The remainder of both news reports (the newspaper and the TV news) did everything possible to down-play the whole thing as a small group of “crazy conservatives” of no consequence.
“Would it be churlish of me to suggest …” No, it would be completely accurate.
And I’d bet the police were there to “protect the protesters from the evil Tea Party.”
I concur. The past three years our local state Rifle Association has had record attendence at their mid-March rally to the IL Capital, even with terrible blizzards, freezing rain and wind.
Estimates are between 3,000-5,000 people. Zero news coverage.
However let 4 anti-gun Moms get together for lunch at Panera Bread and it’s covered by 3-4 of the local news outlets.
I’m surprised no one commented upon the high level of cleverness of the sign, and its placement. You see, the kid with the sign is sitting in a tree in the KILLING ZONE that took JFK from us.
That was the day that America began dying a slow death.
I’m not a huge fan of Kennedy, from a historical perspective. While I may not be a huge fan I do believe he was what the country needed at that time.
All the same I’d argue it was already dying a slow death and that his assassination sped things up considerably.
Yeah JFK has been painted awfully saintly via his demise. I mean, his election was won thanks to the mob. And his family would buy out newspapers that were anti-Kennedy, then have them start printing pro-Kennedy articles. A lot of people point to his assassination as some huge turning point where the powers at be took control of the Government and he was “the last real president”, this is foolish. They’re all real presidents… sort of, they’ve all just been getting more and more corrupt and power hungry since FDR. *spits* I have to spit every time I say his name. Nixon too, *spit*. He did way more shit than just Watergate. *spit* *loogie*
Patricia Bond,
You also live in a completely different part of the country from your fellow Washingtonians just over the Cascades…
[They plan to lobby the Texas Legislature in 2015 to end gun-free zones, which include schools and military bases.]
Texas schools are already moving away from “gun-free,” and military bases are federal property which is not subject to the Legislature.
I really hope that was the reporter speaking, and not the aim of Come and Take It and Let’s Roll Texas. Some of the pro-gun groups really need to take some lessons in how to effectively lobby for changes in Texas law.
YMMV.
Comments are closed.