21st Gun Bill Day thread

rambling_one said:

I suited up with the sandwich board and by 8am was walking my “beat,” on Bladen Street, around the State Building and along West street.

My first encounter was with a casually dressed gent who obviously had a place to go, but took the time to ask what MSI was about, accepted a flyer, and told me to “keep up the good work.”

The second fellow was manning the parking garage window and stepped out onto the sidewalk to ask about MSI. Though wearing a Vietnam veteran hat, he was noncommittal on the issue. When I mentioned protecting one’s wife, for example, he seemed to retreat inside himself, as though perhaps he didn’t have a spouse or had lost her.

Several cars honked their horns along the way and on the long stretch of Bladen Street headed out of the city; i.e., walking against incoming traffic, one young lady rolled down her winder and gave me a thumb’s up. Another, walking toward me, read the sign and said “I’m with you guys.”

Back in town a man and woman headed into one of the government buildings stopped to chat. She remained quiet, but the man was obviously not adverse to our message, but told me that with Maryland politics being what it is, he didn’t think we’d succeed. I told him we get no where if we give up.

With that I met up with Boxcab and headed for a coffee break.

My most productive encounter was with a middle aged black woman who spent at least twenty minutes asking all sorts of questions and very receptive to my answers. She spoke of her late grandmother who lived in Baltimore and carried a small hand gun in her purse because she was afraid to walk from her house to the trolley. I told her it was MSI’s mission to ensure folks like her grandmother won’t have to break the law to be safe. Her eyes glistened.

She asked who were the worst on gun issues – Democrats or Republicans. I told her that statistically it was the former, but pointed out that there are some pro-gun democrats and that one, Dan Riley, actually proposed a CCW bill. She winced a little when I told her Dan had lost his reelection bid.

She couldn’t believe that until last year a homeowner exonerated of justifiably killing an intruder could be sued in civil court, perhaps ending up losing the family’s savings including the house that was defended. She asked who did that - Democrat or Republican – and I gave her Frosh’s name. Her response…”That ain’t right.”

I told her that we need more minorities to join MSI…more seniors…more women. She asked for a brochure and seemed glad that I also offered her my e-mail address.

We discussed at some length the need to get the black community involved. That MLK was denied a handgun permit in Alabama. That many in the black community are fearful to publicize their ownership of firearms. That in PG County, for example, it may be reminiscent of their distrust in the police.

On the last leg of my journey a gent named Leroy managed to catch up with me…he said every time he got close, the crossing lights wouldn’t cooperate. Turns out he is Paul’s dad (I told him I wouldn’t hold that against him). We managed to meet up with Paul and several others for lunch at the Ram’s Head Tavern. Nice end to a productive day.

Click to expand...

haoleboy said:

Before ANYONE thinks we should be rubbing elbows with Del. Tiffany Alston and getting her on our side you should be reading this. It was already brought up earlier in this thread and it seems everyone ignored it.
Having someone like her on our side flushes our credibility down the toilet. We might as well bring on Jack Johnson and Marion Berry while we are at it.

http://www.wusa9.com/news/local/story.aspx?storyid=179821

http://www.wjla.com/articles/2011/09/tiffany-alston-indicted-on-theft-charges-66980.html

http://www.washingtonpost.com/local...r-del-alston/2011/12/15/gIQAAmGrwO_story.html

http://baltimore.cbslocal.com/2011/12/15/md-lawmaker-faces-2nd-indictment/

http://maryland-politics.blogspot.com/2011/09/del-tiffany-alston-indicted.html

The Trial starts in May. At least wait to see IF she is cleared on ALL charges before you friend her on FB.

Click to expand...

Skins_Brew said:

Didn't you know that having a rap sheet is points in your favor if you are a PG/DC lawmaker??

Click to expand...

PJDiesel said:

I dont consider charges or an indictment to be a criminal history. This is the USA, correct?

Click to expand...

Skins_Brew said:

Didn't you know that having a rap sheet shady dealings is points in your favor if you are a PG/DC lawmaker??

Click to expand...

foxtrapper said:

I am always meeting MDer's who agree with me on shall-issue. I've been through 3 sets of MICA students now who have no problem with it. But none seem to be native to MD. A couple of them are from VA.

Click to expand...

hvymax said:

But we still look like nutcakes to most Marylanders. If we can show that this is perfectly normal for most Americans and that there is no reason for it to be any more or less complicated than something we all do then we can become normal here as well.
We need to show that Maryland is the anomoly and make them wonder why.

Click to expand...

WARPIG [USMC];1517006 said:

Smokey, I hope you dont mind..I borrowed your videos and posted them on my Facebook wall for my friends and family to see what we have to go through to secure our fundamental right to self defense. They can see first hand, the weak argument against us becoming a Shall Issue state, and the disrespectful nature of our public servants turning a cold shoulder to the discussion.

Ive already started peaking interests and having questions asked about it. Thanks for the videos!

Click to expand...

smokey0118 said:

You really get a feeling that they respect and value every testimony dontcha?

Click to expand...

rambling_one said:

I was surprised to hear the Lieutenant say that MSP has tried, in conjunction with committee members, to come up with a definition last year.

Click to expand...

csanc123 said:

I reckon they tried but were aiming for language that would maintain the status quo....Basically they couldn't come up with something in the realm of reality that would justify maintaining the inequity in the current process.

This, I beleive, was fairly evident yesterday given the "babbly gook" and non-answers they presented as retorts to fairly direct questions.

Click to expand...

gprimr1 said:

I liked the innocent until proven guilty, but I didn't like how they let the MSP spin it off about issuing and revoking permits.

I also see the MSP will not change anything if the burden is shifted to them to disprove. They are reading Smiegel's bill the same way I'm reading it, which is 60,000 trillion miles away from how he's reading it.

Click to expand...

edleary1227 said:

Kelly then inquired as to whether they had actually surveyed other surrounding states on what they did to accomodate their CCW premitting and the MSP reps basically said yes, but they weren't at liberty to discuss that info.

In other words, suck it up guys, our Commander wants $$$.

Click to expand...