MCSM Meeting - October 11th, 7pm

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  • dgross

    Member
    Jul 19, 2005
    35
    For those new to MCSM meetings:

    MCSM meetings are always meet in the downstairs room of American Legion Post 268, at 11225 Fern St., Wheaton MD 20902. This American Legion post is on the street that is in back of the Safeway that looks out on Georgia Avenue, in downtown Wheaton. We usually meet on the second Tuesday of the month. A map of our meeting location is at:

    www.mcsm.org/location.html

    Once you have parked, please go to the side of the Post that faces its parking lot, and go in the door that has the awning over it. Ring the buzzer, and, when you are buzzed in, please jot your name in the little guest book that is just on your right. Please put "Doug Gross MCSM" in the "Sponsor" column. Then go through the food-service area, and go on through to the door at the far right corner of the pool-tables area; go down the stairs, and that's where we meet.

    We hope to see you there!

    Doug Gross
    Chair, MCSM

    MCSM -- Montgomery Citizens for a Safer Maryland -- www.mcsm.org

    Greetings - We hope you will attend the next meeting of MCSM!
    MEETING AGENDA
    ---> Tuesday, October 11th, 2005 <---
    7:00 - 9:00 PM AMERICAN LEGION POST # 268
    11225 FERN ST. WHEATON, MD 20902

    1) Welcome and Pledge of Allegiance.

    2) Introduction of any new guests or prospective members (brief).

    3) 2006 Annapolis session approaching

    4) Katrina remnants --

    NRA obtains court order halting police seizure of guns from the law-abiding;

    Self-defense stories emerging from Katrina; news media switches to trying to underplay the accounts of violence once the media realizes that they serve as reasons to be prepared for self-defense;

    Early news reports of rescue helicopters in New Orleans being harrassed by "gunfire" appear to be entirely unfounded (see below); New Orleans police chief resigns.

    5) Second Amendment Sisters' protest outside the French Embassy on September 28th; report.

    We hope to see you at the meeting, Tuesday, October 11th!
    www.mcsm.org PO Box 2563, Silver Spring MD 20915-2563

    Gun-rights information web sites of note:

    www.nraila.org www.myguns.net www.mcrkba.org
    www.2asisters.org www.silveradogunshow.com www.gunsaint.com
    www.blackmanwithagun.com www.secure-skies.org

    "They're shooting at the helicopters!" -- was bunk.

    "Rumors fueled Katrina tales" --
    http://www.twincities.com/mld/twincities/news/12801992.htm

    Among the rumors that spread as quickly as floodwaters after Hurricane
    Katrina, reports that gunmen were taking potshots at rescue helicopters
    stood out for their senselessness.

    On Sept. 1, as patients sweltered in hospitals without power and
    thousands of people remained stranded on rooftops and in attics,
    crucial rescue efforts were delayed as word of such attacks spread.

    But more than a month later, representatives from the Air Force, Coast
    Guard, Department of Homeland Security and Louisiana Air National Guard
    say they have yet to confirm a single incident of gunfire at
    helicopters.

    Likewise, members of several rescue crews who were told to halt
    operations say there is no evidence they were under fire.

    To be sure, the streets of New Orleans posed real dangers in the days
    after Katrina. Many rescue workers said they heard gunfire; one doctor
    reports that shots came close enough to Charity Hospital that he heard
    the bullets hit.

    But so many rumors were swirling that the facts still haven't been
    sorted out. A picture is emerging of heroic but harried rescue workers
    from dozens of organizations forced to make snap decisions with only
    slender threads of information and no reliable communications.

    The storm created so much confusion that government officials cannot
    even agree on whether they ever issued an order to halt flights or
    other rescue efforts.

    Sometimes the mere rumor that they had was enough.

    On the morning of Sept. 1, Mike Sonnier was directing rescue
    helicopters at his company, Acadian Ambulance, when one of his pilots
    called to say the military had suspended flights after gunfire was
    reported in the air near the Louisiana Superdome. ...

    Sonnier said that when he checked with the National Guard about two
    hours later, he was told it was OK to fly. At that point Acadian
    resumed operations. Even today, it's not clear whether a military order
    to stop flying was ever actually made. ...

    "Hospitals are trying to evacuate," a Coast Guard spokeswoman at the
    city emergency operations center told the Associated Press. "At every
    one of them, there are reports that as the helicopters come in, people
    are shooting at them."

    But that initial report proved difficult to confirm. Two Coast Guard
    spokesmen who were asked in recent days about helicopter shootings said
    there were no incidents of any Coast Guard personnel or vehicles taking
    fire.

    "We don't know of any shots ever fired directly at us," said Capt. Bob
    Mueller, commander of the Guard's New Orleans station. "But there were
    a number of reports of shots fired in the air. There were two occasions
    where all (helicopters) were directed to land. I believe those orders
    came from the Superdome. Our flatboats did stand down Sept. 1." ...

    The confusion affected more than just helicopter crews. Florida Task
    Force 1 was using boats to reach the stranded - but not on Sept. 1.

    Because of reports of gunfire, a FEMA support team ordered the Florida
    task force to stop work for the entire day unless law enforcement
    protection could be found, task force leader Dave Downey said. That
    help never came. Meanwhile, thousands of people were stuck in attics
    and on roofs of flooded houses in New Orleans. ....

    Many other stories don't pan out. Reports that an employee of the
    Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries was shot during a rescue
    mission were false, a department spokesman said. And although one man
    was arrested after shooting a .22-caliber rifle in the air as a
    helicopter flew by, it occurred several days after the major rescue
    operations at hospitals and the Superdome.

    Tales of snipers shooting at helicopters and rescue personnel were
    among many reports of violence that swirled around New Orleans in the
    initial days after Katrina. Accounts of murders and rapes in the
    Superdome and convention center have since been called into question by
    state and local authorities.

    Consider how the helicopter shooting stories morphed during one day of
    news coverage.

    Early the morning of Sept. 1, National Public Radio reported that a
    Chinook helicopter was shot at. That afternoon, NPR reported that
    search-and-rescue teams had been shot at. By 5 p.m. on Fox, the Chinook
    had become a Sikorsky. That evening, Keith Olbermann, host of
    MSNBC's "Countdown," opened the show talking about "an unknown number
    of residents shooting at and threatening the very people trying to save
    them."

    By the next night, U.S. Rep. Charlie Melancon, D-La., in an MSNBC
    interview with Tucker Carlson, said matter-of-factly that bus drivers
    and helicopters were being shot at.

    Perhaps one of the best examples of the feedback loop created by rumor
    and amplified by the media happened at Acadian Ambulance.

    On Wednesday, Aug. 31, an Acadian medic reported that he had been
    unable to drop supplies at a hospital in suburban Kenner because of
    armed crowds on the roof. But the medic had never gone to the hospital,
    turning back after hearing a warning over military radio.

    Acadian Chief Executive Richard Zuschlag repeated the story to the
    media, unaware that his crew had been acting on a military radio
    report. Zuschlag said he learned only in the past week that his crew
    had not actually seen the crowds. ... A spokeswoman for Kenner
    Regional Medical Center said Sunday that she knew of no such incident.
     

    dgross

    Member
    Jul 19, 2005
    35
    (Seeing as a followup has been requested, a brief summary of the meeting will be ...

    ... posted in this forum, subsequent to meetings)

    Highlights included:

    Co-Chair Bob Culver brought in a small DVD player, and we watched and listened to a 10-minute segment from NRA News, in which Bob was interviewed by phone about the experiences at the MCSM table at the Takoma Park Folk Festival of Sept. 11th.

    The news segment began, by the way, with the image of the US Capitol building, and an amusing description of where Takoma Park is in relation to that, something close to: "Go north for a bit, and then go left -- actually, go far left ..."

    The Second Amendment Sisters (SAS) coordinator from DC was also present, and discussion followed (and branched from) the agenda, including the (then) breaking story about "no guns in 'FEMA Village'" and how the officials behind that were already beginning to back-pedal; the approaching 2006 session in Annapolis, legislative testimony, activism, and what generally goes on behind the scenes as bills make their way in Annapolis, and ideas for the remaining two MCSM meetings of this year; how the anti's are not at all giving (as they did two years ago) indications of what they might try this year; the possible effects of 2006's being an election year; SAS news; background details about NRA's obtaining the court order halting seizure of guns, and other items under the heading of "fallout from Katrina."
     
    Last edited:

    Spot77

    Ultimate Member
    May 8, 2005
    11,591
    Anne Arundel County
    the approaching 2006 session in Annapolis


    Aha!

    That one needs some elaboration.

    Do we know if Quinter or Gargagiola are planning another AWB attempt this year? Ballistic Fingerprinting repeal gonna' be pushed again?
     

    dgross

    Member
    Jul 19, 2005
    35
    Approaching 2006 session in Annapolis

    At the meeting, none knew. I await my copy of Jim Purtilo's "TripWire" to learn what may be discerned on the horizon.

    Two summers ago, the semi-auto banners widely trumpeted their intention to keep the ban alive in Maryland, and, since their attempt failed, they (and the anti-2A bunch in general) are playing their cards closer to the vest since then. Then as now, when there is reliable news to be had, "TripWire" will have it. :) www.myguns.net

    >> Do we know if Quinter or Gargagiola are planning another AWB attempt this year? Ballistic Fingerprinting repeal gonna' be pushed again?
     

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