Official February 6th day of event thread.

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  • Echo

    Troublemaker
    Oct 31, 2012
    1,076
    Annapolis
    So supporters of the bill are speaking first??
     

    smokey

    2A TEACHER
    Jan 31, 2008
    31,412
    Dwyer is saying over 1000 have signed up inside with over 500 waiting in the overflow room. Thats not counting the hundreds outside waiting to sign up to testify.
     

    Gambler

    ¿Got Freedom?
    Oct 30, 2011
    3,476
    Parkville
    The state house is so full that it is now closed

    AWESOME!!

    Splitting up the bill is smart. There are SO many bills floating around right now it was nice for us to have one big target. Splitting them up will make it harder for us to fight them. That means we need to stay on top of things and stay organized.
     

    GoGoGadget

    Deplorable Member
    Mar 10, 2011
    2,959
    A.A.Co. and Carteret Co. NC
    There is still time to come down to the senate building. You can sign in opposition out side of the building, even though not everyone will have time to testify.

    Dwyer is encouraging everyone to sign to have the overwhelming numbers on record.
     

    Dreamquencher

    Grammar Nazgûl
    Jan 20, 2013
    140
    Undisclosed Location, MD
    Annapolis After Action Report, 6 Feb 13

    Note: Edited to remove unimportant commentary

    So, for complex reasons, I couldn't leave the house until 1030 this morning. I thought, no problem, I'm only 15 minutes from Annapolis; I can take the back roads to one of several parking garages and score. As I was driving in on West Street, I was struck by how little traffic there was. Then I saw the sign: West Circle closed from 9 AM-1 PM. "No problem," I thought, "I'll just park in the garage proximal to the circle." Well, the police shut down West St. at the Toyota dealership WAY before the circle. As I turned right under police direction, I also saw that Spa Road was closed inbound. The only other way I was familiar with to get into Annapolis was via Rt 50 and Rowe Blvd. Of course, as others have noted, the Rowe Blvd exit was a parking lot, even before Parole. I finally made my way onto Rowe Blvd, only to see that literally a thousand cars were lining up in the right lane to park at the Navy lot. I stayed in the left lane over the bridge, and decided to park in a sneaky (but not technically illegal) place 200 yards from the rally. My naive plan was to run in to sign up to speak, lazily return to my car, change into my suit in the public bathroom nearby, get some lunch, then return at 1300 to testify. In retrospect, that was Fantasy Island thinking.

    With the help of a kind female Md Senate staffer, I quickly made my way through the rally crowd to the Senate building, where I went through security around 1145. There I saw that the line to sign in to testify went approximately 100 yards to the stairs, then wrapped around the circular stairs and back and forth on the second floor. I guesstimate that there were about 1000 people standing in line (and perhaps more). After speaking to a cool former Marine (Semper Fi), he kindly agreed to save my spot while I went to deliver my written testimony (all 20 copies) just before they stopped taking them at noon. I must have passed the actual sign in place, but it was quite inconspicuous. I marveled that there weren't 10 or 20 volunteers at a table to take people's signatures efficiently...democracy in inaction, I guess. By the time I returned to the line, it had moved perhaps 10 feet in 10 minutes. I did the math, and realized that I would be able to sign in to speak on Wednesday by Thursday afternoon, at the earliest. One guy with a 2A button who was standing next to the line stated that when he had signed in 1.5 hours before, the list of people wanting to testify was already 10 pages long. I reckoned that I had done my part for the cause.

    I thus went outside to the rally, which I estimate conservatively at ~3 thousand around noon. After a while, I wandered back to my sneaky but legal parking place to drive home. On my way out, I saw hundreds of people still streaming in across the College Creek bridge at 1215, with hundreds more taking the shuttle bus, and an unknown but large number of cars lined up to come into Annapolis on Rowe Blvd.

    A few observations:
    1) Tom Toles has an extremely timely cartoon today in the Washington Post: http://img.washingtonpost.com/rf/im.../Editorial-Opinion/Graphics/toles02062013.jpg I really did feel disenfranchised by the poor planning on the part of the Maryland Senate support staff with regard to the mechanism for citizens to sign up to testify. It is the 21st century. Could there not be some electronic mechanism devised, including a requirement for name, address, phone number, and any other reasonable information that was required at the sign in log? Would someone please share what info was asked at the sign in log? I bet fingerprints and retinal scans weren’t involved…though you wouldn’t know that from the slowness of the line. I'm pretty sure that nothing on the log could not reasonably be submitted by e-mail weeks in advance, if someone at the Senate cared enough to improve access for Maryland citizens. I would challenge our elected officials to name one other place where people are expected to line up for 4-5 hours before being able to exercise a constitutionally-protected right (besides voting in minority areas, that is).

    2) The Park Annapolis website is down for the count from the punishing hits all of you provided from your smart phones while looking for parking places. I guess the SEO work they did or money they paid to get them to the top of a Google search for "park Annapolis" (with or without quotes) didn't help them as much as they expected, at least today.

    3) The crowd at the rally was very diverse and peaceful. Not everyone was an overweight, older, balding, white, male, ex-military member with a military or NRA hat like myself...only about half.

    4) I did not see any organized counter-rally of anti-gun activists. The sentiment of the crowd and the conversations I overheard both inside and outside the Senate building were 90% or more pro-2A.

    5) I have a hard time believing that the Md Senate did not know President Obama was visiting Annapolis on 6 Feb...or that the White House was not aware that Maryland would be Ground Zero for the fight to protect our 2nd Amendment rights in 2013, before it's too late. I am not usually a conspiracy nut, but, given that the Senate meeting is traditionally held in Cambridge, MD on the Eastern Shore, it seems just too coincidental that I was almost prevented from exercising my rights as a citizen of Maryland to submit my written testimony because of the (necessary) security surrounding the President.

    6) Rule number one of sneaky parking: You don't talk about where sneaky parking is (in case I need to return to help defeat the bill when it reaches the Maryland House of Delegates).

    7) The weather was as beautiful and warm as we get here in Md in early February. I'm sorry I missed the bald eagles flying overhead...I guess I was too busy maneuvering through the HUGE crowd to look...up in the sky...it's a bird!

    To those of you who successfully managed to sign up to testify and are staying all night: Best of Luck! Go get 'em! Hope the bathroom cleaning staff keeps up with demand!

    Bravo Zulu,
     
    Last edited:

    BradMacc82

    Ultimate Member
    Industry Partner
    Aug 17, 2011
    26,177
    Lx1x and I are signed up, bldg still closed, sitting in Ram's Head getting a quick meal.
     

    smokey

    2A TEACHER
    Jan 31, 2008
    31,412
    Not a single ounce of coverage on the media yet........

    There will be. I got interviewed by a few people already with my teacher-shirt on. Channel 2 news was one on video. Im inside now, it's PACKED
     

    Les Gawlik

    Ultimate Member
    Apr 2, 2009
    3,384
    Because the senate office building is closed, Del Dwyer has sheets to sign in opposition which will be entered into the legislative record. He will try to give those who sign preference when this comes before the House. If you're on station, do not leave until you've signed the books!
     

    MJD438

    Ultimate Member
    MDS Supporter
    Feb 28, 2012
    5,849
    Somewhere in MD
    Because the senate office building is closed, Del Dwyer has sheets to sign in opposition which will be entered into the legislative record. He will try to give those who sign preference when this comes before the House. If you're on station, do not leave until you've signed the books!

    These need to get spread through the overflow room...lots of people here that do not know they can still sign in.
     

    erwos

    The Hebrew Hammer
    MDS Supporter
    Mar 25, 2009
    13,866
    Rockville, MD
    Yeah, I was in the same boat as you. Left work later than I had hoped, and missed the bus on testifying. I'm thinking about hitting the Rockville town hall and letting my voice be heard there, too.

    All in all, it was a great event, and I'm sad I couldn't see Beretta go beat up on Frosh.
     

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