State Capitol Demonstration Megathread with Pics

[cass1776]

Saw lots of great signs today but this was my favorite.

/Mike


View attachment 51070

That was one of my favorites as well.

 

[Greschner 4]

Fox showed the Rally. The Crowd looked HUGE! Aaron Pateris distinguished himself in speaking to the Fox Press.

 

[Adamant2010]

I hope things went well today out there! Wish I could have been there!

 

[mikem317]

300 to 400 at the NH rally in Concord. I'll post pics later.

 

[Neuro]

holy processing, batman (Artifact). Great shots, but the effects make it all gloom with the desaturation and clarification on overload.... mine are bright and happy, dare I say sexy at times.....

 

[Jsfitzgerald85]

Great Pics guys, I wish i could of gone, I will be attending the next one.

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Great Pics guys, I wish i could of gone, I will be attending the next one.

 

[matruhunter]

ABC 40 had a 5 second blurb mentioning "hundreds of people rallied across the country..." Then showed a clip of speakers in Illinois. What a joke! I will be writing to them this evening, correcting thier mistake, and informing them of the future "pro 2nd amendment" rallies (1/22/13 and 2/8/13). I suggest we all do the same. Good turn out today. I look forward to seeing most of you again next week.

 

[taggart]

holy processing, batman (Artifact). Great shots, but the effects make it all gloom...

haha, glad I'm not the only one. The pics look friggin awesome, but I half expected to see zombies somewhere in those shots.

 

[Big_Red]

The rally was great and the turnout totally exceeded my expectations. Awesome job by all who spoke...well, almost all.

Here are my photos:

This one cracked me up.

 

[beaker]

it is a thread of it's own search for today's speech should turn it up

It's worth repeating here...

The past Monday I decided to visit the Minuteman Park in Lexington and pay tribute to Captain John Parker and his fellow minutemen. A thought came to my mind, that the founding fathers of the United States and Chairman Mao had one thing in common: they all realized that guns are important political instruments. Their similarities, however, ended there:

Chairman Mao wrote: ‘Political power grows out of barrel of a gun’, and he dictated: ‘The party shall command the gun’. James Madison and his compatriots, however, believing that the power of the state is derived from the consent of the governed, ratified that ‘the right to keep and bear arms, shall not be infringed’.

23 years ago, I was a college freshman exercising my freedom of speech and assembly in Tian’anmen Square, much like we are doing here today. We grew frustrated by the restriction of personal freedoms and the corrupted Chinese government, and we thought peaceful protest would make the country better. Our young passion and patriotism was crushed by hails of full metal jackets out of AK47’s. (Some AK purists here would argue they were really type 56’s). We could not fight back, because we did not have an inch of iron in our hands, to borrow a Chinese expression: we were unarmed.

Gun owners like us often say: the Second Amendment is the protector against a tyrannical government. Some may argument that a man with a rifle is no match to the military machines of today, so such beliefs are no longer relevant. However, 20 million peaceful Beijing citizens in 1989, sure wished that they had a few million rifles in their hands!

Freedom is not free. Liberty has costs. We recognize that in this free society, criminals or mentally deranged could get weapons and murder the innocents. The answer, however, is not to disarm the law abiding citizens. Not only criminals and the deranged will violate the laws anyway, but more importantly, when a government turns criminal, when a government turns deranged, the body count will not be five, ten or twenty, but hundreds, like in Tian’anmen Square, or millions, counted in the 90-year history of the Chinese Communist Party.

Our constitutional republic may look fuzzy and loving today (if you think so, I’ve got a TSA agent you should meet), but keep in mind that absolute power corrupts absolutely! And when a government has monopoly on guns, it has absolute power!

Do you know that the Chinese Constitution guarantees almost all the nice things we have here? It is written that Chinese citizens enjoy freedom of speech and religion, they have human and property rights, and that such rights cannot be taken away without due process of the law. And do you know what? Chinese people do not have the right to keep and bear arms. I assure you all those nice guarantees, are not worth the paper they are printed on, because when the government has all the guns, they have all the rights.

I was not born a citizen of the United States, I was naturalized in 2007. In 2008, I became a proud gun owner. To me, a rifle is not for sporting or hunting, it is an instrument of freedom. It guarantees that I cannot be coerced, that I have free will, and that I am a free man.

Now suppose the 20 million Beijing citizens had had a few million rifles, how many rounds should they have been ALLOWED to load into their magazines? 10? 7? How about 3?

Never, never, never give up the fight, my friends. It may be a small step that you give up your rifle, or a 30-round magazine, but it will be a giant leap in the destruction of this great republic.

In closing I will quote the words of Captain John Parker: "Stand your ground. Don't fire unless fired upon. But if they want to have a war, let it begin here."

 

[Skysoldier]

This is a fantastic picture!

I just made that my desktop background..

 

[bocephus jones]

Great pics guys, weird to see myself in so many, but I couldn't be prouder.
Great turnout, great speeches, great signs.
Keep up the good work everyone, and keep calling your reps.

 

[Kevin l]

Fantastic crowd today! Proud to stand amongst so many fine folks with my wife and step-son.

My pics from today here

Here's a pic looking down the street in front of the Statehouse.

Great involvement from this family

 

[Rob G]

Looks like a great turn out guys. Proud of you all. Wish I could have been there but water main blew and flooded my apartment last night. I'm in for the next unless my shit a** luck keeps up.

 

[mike59271]

Great showing guys! I really loved being there, I think we need to do some march next time though, it will garner more attention I think. Just hi-jack the sidewalks.

Also, I want to get some people together to all go down there on a weekday, maybe Friday? Whenever the reps are there to actually confront them. Not anything aggressive, just show them our numbers and that we mean business. Again, great job everyone!

 

[mikem317]

I see these pictures and one thought comes to my mind. Maybe the idea of "America" can be saved. Maybe we're actually winning despite the calls for disarmament by the Left and some charlatans on the Right.

Molon labe.

 

[Schuyshot]

FOXNEWS @ 630 piece coming up after the commercial!

 

[bender73]

does anyone object to me stealing one of those HDR shots for my FB wallpaper? Not sure who did that cool HDR shot of the crowd.

 

[ISOTOX]

Folks, SPREAD THIS FAR AND WIDE.

AMAZING speech. Thank you for your inspirational words.

I was humbled buy this man....I wish I knew him so I can say how proud he made me feel today and how proud I am knowing he is an American....this being the only forum to say that......Sir I am Proud of you!

 

[PaulD]

I'm glad to have been a small part of it today. I saw many familiar faces and had a great time.

Someone asked if anyone talked with the BPD. I noticed all the officers near me were carrying 1911's so I asked one of them what model they were, to which he answered Sig. I had a short conversation with him about it and he mentioned he was a Marine and that he never liked the M9. Said he preferred the 1911 because "It's just a superior weapon". Right on brother.

The only people I saw cause any trouble at all were folks driving by. I did catch part of the interaction between that trolly driver and a few guys. I was standing right across the street. The fella that was most loudly responding to that jerk handled himself just fine. Good for you sir, and us more importantly. Really, kudos to every single person that attended. It's critical we show all who were watching that we are courteous, responsible, well-spoken citizens who are not just talking a big game on the internet anymore. Maybe the word "milestone" is too glorious to use for this event but that's how it feels to me. I've never been involved in any type of demonstration. If there were anything worth fighting for it's this.

So my friends, when's the next one?

P.S. - I've never been a city guy and I pretty much avoid Boston at all costs, but after seeing the flocks of really cute girls walking around, I think I'll visit more often.

I walked around and talked to every single one of them. I simply requested that if they agreed with the reason we were all there, and disagreed and Patrick and Linsky's abominations, please call their reps, identify themselves as police officers and tell the reps that it was wrong. I'd say 85% explicitly stated they agreed with the reason for the rally. The rest said they couldn't offer an opinion on the job but strongly hinted they too agreed with the rally.

And yes, I agree that we may need another one of these before this is over.

 

[johniac7078]

Footage I took

 

[GunGrey]

haha finally made a picture, figured it would happened

guy with the black hat under the sign, next to the guy in the green

 

[mikem317]

Oh, and no cops present at the NH rally. None. There were at least three people with long guns slung over their shoulders too.

 

[MisterHappy]

As I just stated in another thread, I was proud to be there, today.

I actually was a bit on the fence - my 14-year-old son was the deciding factor - he was not feeling 100%, but felt that we should go.

Glad I listened to the kid.

Thanks to all that attended.


ETA:

It was nice to meet, in person, a few NESers that I only knew as avatars.

 

[gearjunky13]

Anyone carrying?

I know i had two, so yes, but the fact you had to ask is the reason ccw works so well.

 

[Hiltonizer]

Oh, and no cops present at the NH rally. None. There were at least three people with long guns slung over their shoulders too.

MA, no open carry, loaded with cops. NH, open carry all the things, no cops.

Tells you all you need to know, the state just proved our point.

 

[tdubbs]

Has anyone seen cnn.com? Are you kidding?

 

[JohnnyViper]

Pictures from today my favorite is the first, I caught 4 flags in it

 

[Gadsden]

haha finally made a picture, figured it would happened

guy with the black hat under the sign, next to the guy in the green

Love the poster. Who made it and this pic? Care if I share the picture?

 

[DrRansom]

haha, glad I'm not the only one. The pics look friggin awesome, but I half expected to see zombies somewhere in those shots.

There was one? She was yelling out of that van window.