Atlanta Pro Gun Rally 4/14 EDIT: Permit pulled, legal rally is off...

[alnen]

Calling is probably second best to showing up while in-session, but that's not an option for very many. Letters work about the same (not emails, actual snail-mail). Calling worked wonders in 2013 after Sandy Hook.

That being said, you are right that sometimes it's important to show numbers. The problem is the Second Amendment doesn't have any billionaires ready to throw down the hundreds of millions needed to match Blomberg. The NRA would end up broke trying to match them for even a year. In 2016 Bloomberg gave every single one of his organizations $50 million in funding... More than the entire budget for the NRA that year.

As these organizers found out, free speech is expensive of you want to do it at a large scale. Look at the two bills mentioned here, about $7000 each for police OT and porta-potties. Bloomberg's groups setup rally's in 800 cities. That's over $11 million for just these two basic expenses. That doesn't count all the extras like busing people in, pre-printed signs, tee-shirts, paying 'volunteers' to act as marshals, lining up speakers and renting equipment. And you can be sure the costs were a lot higher for everything in cities like D.C. or NYC.

People complained that the NRA doesn't foot the bill for this kind of stuff. That $11 million for permits and honey-buckets would be the NRA-ILA budget for the year. Yet because they didn;t go bankrupt trying to 'keep up with the Bloombergs', they don't feel they should join the group, or make a donation. A vicious circle where we eat our own. Something the gun comminuty seems pretty good at doing.




I'm sure all the other actual rallies and marches probably did pay these kinds of fees. But they have all kinds of funding available to do it. The permits in DC ($50,000 plus from what I saw) were paid for by the American Teachers Federation, so it was no surprise that teachers all over the US were pushing their students to participate.

You can bet ANTIFA didn't pay for anything but to ship their paid thugs to attack legal rallys. And the BLM folks blocking highways were obviously illegal.

I don't think the nra should have footed the bill, but they should be doing SOMETHING. By something I mean things other than supporting bump stock bans and "gun violence restraining orders". They should be organizing rallies even if they are not paying for them. What exactly are they doing aside from paying off lawmakers and the occasional lawsuit?

 

[Hayata]

Anyone go? Heard any reports?

 

[jdav]

In for info. Hoping any publicity is good...

 

[sparked1]

Anyone go? Heard any reports?

It’s a small crowd of about 80 or so people on the Capitol steps. I see a few ARs out but most are not OCing. I don’t see any press.

 

[sparked1]

A handful of guys are really decked out in mall ninja gear.

 

[Morgan]

 

[Shortcut]

Just drove by maybe 100 people maybe more or less. Saw several with rifles slung a few in kit. Looked peaceful and organized. 1 capital cop accross the street just watching

 

[spencer60]

I don't think the nra should have footed the bill, but they should be doing SOMETHING. By something I mean things other than supporting bump stock bans and "gun violence restraining orders". They should be organizing rallies even if they are not paying for them. What exactly are they doing aside from paying off lawmakers and the occasional lawsuit?

I'm trying to think of the last time the NRA actually organized a rally. Their strength is at the federal level with legislators. Just like the Second Amendment Foundation's strength is in the courts, both state and federal. I want to say that the last rally I was at in 2013 or so, and was organized by GA Carry at the capital.

Doing local rallies isn't the NRA's job, it's the province of the state group. In many cases the NRA will provide some funding, and even some assitance if they are brought on-board early enough, but they really don;t work directly at the state level.

Unless you have millions to spend on professional 'community organizers' it's really hard to do a significant rally. Just like inaugurations joint sessions of congress, rallies are for the press, not the politicians. And since the media will put their own spin on any rally no matter how good the turnout, they are truly pointless exercises for 2A supporters.

The politicians care a lot more when their phones are ringing off the hook, their servers are crashing because they are getting too much email, and the post office is dropping off snail-mail in sacks. They care when an overflow crowd shows up at a town hall, all yelling about the same thing. That tells them that people care about something, and if they are mad enough to write or call, they are probably mad enough to vote on it.

That's where 2A supporters have always had an advantage. We may eat our own and throw each other under the bus, but we do vote, and we vote in all the 'little' elections the gun control crowd can't be bothered with. Hopefully we'll keep up with that trend.

 

[Shovelhead]

So it was a bust in Atlanta.... Ho did other state capitals fare?????

 

[MNRSports]

Mostly a flop....
The media reports I have seen are all the same.

http://www.latimes.com/nation/la-na-gun-rights-20180414-story.html

https://www.ajc.com/news/gun-rights-advocates-hold-rally-capitol-atlanta/Tqu8riH12UcwqbW34HsnIJ/