Hi Friends,

I just got back from our first pro-gun demonstration in Vancouver, WA. What an amazing experience! If anyone has been reluctant to attend a pro-gun demonstration, I strongly recommend that you go to the next one in your area. I haven't had that much good clean fun in a long time.

The idea for our demonstration started two days ago when the local newspaper, The Columbian, gave the local chapter of the Million Mom March some nice free publicity. The Columbian printed an op-ed article with the details of the "candlelight vigil" scheduled this evening along with contact info for the local Misguided Moms.

We only had two days notice, so I jumped on the internet to spread the word among my small group of fun friends in SW Washington. I didn't know it at the time, but at least a few other people had the same idea. I figured that maybe 6-10 gun rights supporters might show up. It turned out that we had about 50. There were lots of women and even a few kids running around with toy guns and/or picket signs.

Some folks just showed up on their own after reading the article in The Columbian. Others were notified via spontaneous diffusion of email from person to person.

Some people from the Oregon chapter of the Second Amendment Sisters joined us with their big sign. Another guy I didn't know is part of some kind of local Second Amendment group that I did not even know existed. To put it bluntly, gun people were coming out of the woodwork.

The Misguided Moms were using a large gazebo or bandstand in the middle of our two block square city park. They had a sound system and tables with food and drink. I think about 50 people were sitting on folding chairs in front of the stage and about 6 speakers were sitting on the stage. There was a pretty good gospel choir that was imported from a local black church. They apparently had fun talking to some of our demonstrators after they were finished singing.

The gazebo was placed inside a 200 foot diameter concrete walkway, with its back up against the walkway. There was no wall behind the stage, so when we walked around back there, we were almost on stage ourselves. Most of us walked around the circle for a while, but we tended to congregate behind the stage where the MM could not ignore our signs. It was so satisfying!

I ended up being sort of an unofficial leader of the gun folk, and I passed the word that this would be a quiet demonstration. I did not feel that Vancouver was the right place for a big city style confrontation.

Everyone stayed pretty quiet until the gun grabbers started singing some really stupid, insipid song about "we are one". Then one of our guys who can sing really well started singing the Star Spangled Banner really loud. Of course all of our people joined in quickly. Oddly enough, the gun grabbers started singing along with us. Not sure what that was all about.

There were news people from two TV stations and from The Columbian. I got interviewed by the newspaper reporter and by the lady from Channel 8 -KGW. I hope I don't look too dorky, as I was not really expecting a TV interview. They were also shining a very bright light in my face so that I could not make out anything else in the evening darkness. I am almost glad that I will probably end up with a 2 second sound bite in a 90 second story about how wonderful the Million Moms are.

I feel that we really showed the media that there are plenty of people who oppose the gun haters. No telling how it will play on the evening news, but I believe that if we keep this up, the treatment that we get from the media can only improve.

I do have one hint. Your picket signs are your main tool. Take lots of time to come up with good slogans. Make the signs as large as you can. Black letters on a white background show up best. Use your computer to print bold block letters on multiple sheets of paper and tape them neatly to a piece of cardboard. Make those letters as big as possible so they can be read from a long distance. Regular word processors usually won't print large enough letters. I downloaded a program off the internet that prints posters and banners. It worked well.

If you can afford it, have some really big signs printed on fabric that you can easily roll up for storage between events.

If anyone who reads this is thinking about possibly attending a gun rights demonstration, by all means do it! You will be extremely glad you did. Get out there and show the world that you are mad as Hell and you aren't going to take it anymore. You'll meet a lot of fellow gun rights supporters and might make some good friends. It is a lot more satisfying than writing letters to the editor or sending money to gun rights organizations. Those things are very important, but they aren't as much fun.

Take Care,