Thursday, August 16, 2007

Bradys Call for National Protest on Aug. 28

On August 28, activists in cities across America will hold a national day of protest to focus attention on the scourge of illegal gun trafficking.

As I said on KABA Newslink Comments:
I'm going to try and start a blog swarm at WarOnGuns to get gun owners to buy a box of ammo on Aug 28--be nice if gun stores would offer some sort of nominal discount or a door prize (no purchase necessary to enter, just to keep things legal) or some such on that day to encourage this--Tuesdays may typically be slow days anyway, so this would get people in their stores and probably work out to their profit.

It'd be nice unintended consequences for the Bradys if we could demonstrate a few percentage points of sales increases on that day because of this.


If gun stores use a door prize incentive, I'd like to see them give away a copy of JPFO's "The Gang," but the point is just to make it happen, not to get caught up in the details of how. We're far enough away to where this won't encroach on National Ammo Day, and it would be a great in-your-face to have our enemies' plans backfire on them.

But here's the thing: It won't happen if it's just me pushing. It will die in obscurity on this blog.

Will YOU take it on yourself to spread the word, to participate, to get this message to your favorite gun store, to post about it if you have a blog, or to ask blogs you frequent to encourage their readers to join in?

As gun owners, we need to buy ammo anyway, and this really will take minimal effort on everyone's part. Or will this just be another "Profile in Apathy," where little is asked and nothing is done?

UPDATE: Looks like the Firearms Coalition thought up a similar idea for the same date. They call it "National Exercise Your Rights Day," and urge us to:

[S]tage active counter-protests, picnics, and marches to clearly demonstrate that a majority of Americans support all civil rights for all citizens, not the watered-down, pick-and-choose version of civil rights advocated by Jackson and his RainbowPush coalition.

22 comments:

Anonymous said...

Good Morning, David;

What the heck; I needed a few hundred more rounds of 45LC anyway.

I would suggest though, that you expand the scope of your push to include the constituent parts of ammunition, for all of us "reloaders" out here.

--Cousin G

Anonymous said...

Count me in.

I'm hoping for a new .22LR for my birthday. Might as well buy some ammo in anticipation.

:-)

Anonymous said...

Do reloading components count? :)

Anonymous said...

Why did he choose August 28th for this event?

Here in Missouri we think it's because that's the day one of our Jim Crow remnant laws goes away - the Permit To Acquire, or PTA.

Passed just after the race riots in St. Louis around 1917, the PTA is required for all transfers of 'concealable firearms' (i.e., handguns) - legally even between spouses and for gifts. To legally acquire a handgun you have to go to your countie's Sherriff, pay $10 and fill out a form. They have a week to decide (from back in the things by mail days). If they so deem you get your PTA. It's good for 30 days and for a single transfer. Required info's simple enough to fit on both sides of a large postcard, modern background check takes seconds. In some counties, however (basically metro KC & St. Louis) the form is multi-page and you have to come back after a week.

The law was literally done to keep "the wrong people" from getting handguns so you think a Civil Rights leader would be cheering it's demise.

So here in Missouri we may or may not be buying ammo on the 28th.

But we will be buying guns.

In fact, some dealers are not only hiring extra staff for the day, they're informing customers that they're nearly at the limit of the number of people they can get the paperwork done for on Tuesday just due to the time required / person vs. the hours they're open.

Anonymous said...

According to this post over at calguns, the date was chosen because it's the anniversary of Martin Luther King's March on Washington.

http://www.calguns.net/calgunforum/showthread.php?t=66307

Anyway, at calguns it's buy-a-gun day, not buy-ammo-day, but whether it's ammo or a gun doesn't matter much. More importantly, the word is spreading.

Anonymous said...

Time to pick up another 2 spam cans of 7.62x54 and 7.62x39, and I can't think of a better day to do it!

Anonymous said...

Of course, it's a workday, so these unproductive cretins have nothing better to do.

Thanks for the update. I need some shotguns shells, so I will make it a point to buy a case on the 28th.

Great day to pick, too. The man who marched for civil rights. I need a reminder about my civil rights, because with the police state reforming, sometimes I forget what it's like to be a freeman.

Anonymous said...

Have been planning for some weeks now to buy a couple hundred bucks worth of ammo... primarily because all reports & signs indicate it will be going up soon. But per your suggestion I will make sure my order goes in on the 28th.

Thanks for the idea and all your work to keep us informed & enthused.
- Glen

Anonymous said...

Buying ammo on that day won't help anything. You're just lining the gun shops pocket as well as the ammo manufacturer.

Also notable, increases of a few percent in revenue won't even be noticed.

Your best bet would be to buy a firearm of some sort that day...but historically, I can recall a few occasions where folks tried to organize 'buy a gun to thwart the brady bunch' days to no avail. I know I didn't participate, you gotta have money to buy stuff.

The best bet, then, would be a national NRA awareness day, or national Second Amendment day...or if you're a congressman, maybe you could get this one passed: National Constitution Day. We could all support our 2nd amendment rights, our 19th(?) amendment right to drink and all other Constitutional rights to freedom!

David Codrea said...

There's always a naysayer. I can't make everyone happy.

Just about everyone can afford to buy ammo Anon--not everyone can afford a new gun--which you yourself admit. You're asking people to do a lot more than I am, which makes it harder to get them to do and less likely to succeed--and, incidentally, "lining gun shops pocket" with even more money, which you appear to be criticizing for the ammo plan.

As for national NRA Awareness Day, first off there are a whole bunch of POd activists who think their management has gone too far down the road of compromise--but if they want to do it, convince them to lead the effort, because it won't have a chance unless they endorse it. A national 2nd Amendment Day would require a huge effort to organize, and you haven't given us any concrete goals for it to accomplish and how, and how you would pay for the media campaign, who would administer it, pay for it, organize it, ditto for Constitution Day, which, incidentally, there is one already (Sept. 17) in case you haven't heard, which shows how successful that effort's been (and JPFO promotes Bill of Rights Day on Dec. 15), and sorry, none of us here are congressmen.

So thanks for shooting down this idea, which only requires minimal effort on everyone's part, and replacing it with...exactly what? Somehow, mixing gun rights with a national day of celebrating drinking rights doesn't strike me as the better of two strategies. Besides, what are you going to do to make your superior alternatives happen on a national level? By August 28...

As far as being noticed, that's up to everyone who chooses to pick this idea up and run with it. A lot of blogs and forums are now coming on board--but as I said at the outset, this will die unless a whole bunch of us decide to get creative promoting it. Will success be measured in revenue increases of a few percentage points? Who knows? Maybe success will be defined by getting this concept noticed in the media, where people from our side will get a chance to put a competing soundbite into the public consciousness. Maybe success will be defined by having gun owners--typically as ornery and difficult to herd as cats--to pull together on one thing we all have in common--and establishing that we can do it when we want to. Because we disagree with each other on types of guns, on politics, on enforcing or rescinding laws, on whether it's best to be "pragmatic" or radical, on carry permits required for a right, and on a hundred other things. But we all agree that we need to buy ammo (or components). I can't think of anything that allows so many of us to find common ground,and to make it happen with so little personal effort required.

If you don't want to get involved, anon, that's your call. But don't expect those of us shouldering the effort to be sympathetic to being second-guessed from the sidelines.

Anonymous said...

David,

It's a great idea!

Some folks live in states with gun rationing laws. (Rationing is too nice a term. One gun a month is more like the state controlling the market.) Some folks can't afford to buy a gun right now. Believe me, if I had the money, there's a nice Win. 70 I'd snatch up.

If everyone buys ammo, there are relatively few places that won't honor such a cash sale. However, gun purchases in many states depend on the availability of NICS databases. Sometimes a local POC can go down, or agents will be swamped due to transaction traffic, which has happened to me on more than one occasion here in Connecticut.

Since when is lining the pockets of gun shops and ammo manufacturers a bad thing? Perhaps the ATF should just go and close down the remaining 20% of FFLs, seeing as they're all greedy capitalists who do not deserve our business on the 28th? Or maybe OSHA should go ahead and restrict ammunition storage and transportation so much that it would no longer be cost effective to deliver anywhere?

I don't like paying high ammo prices either, but high-priced goods are better than no goods.

Anonymous said...

I'll be buying ammo in fair profusion! This will make a statement, and to help out the local gunshop is a GOOD thing!
cmblake6

Anonymous said...

It's now on Wikipedia.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/August_28

Anonymous said...

Count me in for ammo and maybe a new/used firearm on the 28th if I can talk the other half into more than just ammo....

AZGunDude

NotClauswitz said...

I'm on board with it. They edited Wikipedia however.

Dex said...

I'm in. Even better, one of the protest sites is on my way home from work. Even better than that, I'm buying shells for my off-paper, gun-show-acquired, 12gauge.

Dave Markowitz said...

I'm in.

http://blogostuff.blogspot.com/2007/08/counter-protest.html

Anonymous said...

Have to work from 0630 until 1900 on the 28th, so bought ammo on the 27th. Picked up 1000 rounds of .22LR, 100 rounds of .45acp and 40 rounds of .308.
Take care,
JT

Anonymous said...

Since in the last two months I have bought 32lbs of powder and 5K primers all I was able to buy was 500+ rounds of 22LR and 2 boxes of 12g slugs.

Grendel

Anonymous said...

I picked up 120 rounds of 308 and 250 rounds of 22lr to join in the protest of the protest!

After all, one can always use more ammo...

Anonymous said...

My "favorite" gun ship was closed Tuesday, and we face a local problem witht he Governor of PA instructing the State Police to stop gun sales for four days coincident with the opener of Goose and dove season, and the City of Philadelphia trying to override both state and fed issues on gun sales.

But I talked it up, and today got 2000 of .22, 200 of M1Carbine, and 500 of .223

More importantly, intriduced a neice to rifle shooting and her boyfriend as well in the company of the Marine back from OEF and my brother.

A great day, if even a day late.

A little more notice can make this so much more effective.

Pacer

David Codrea said...

Agreed, Pacer--I hit the ground with this as soon as I got the info.

That's why I'm posting now about the Tom Gresham YouTube video for the Republican debates in November--see the site today titled "A Great Question" at:

http://waronguns.blogspot.com/2007/08/great-question.html

Funny though--one person there said I posted too soon and they'd forget about it by then--my response--act now and I'll do occasional reminders as the date approaches. I can't please everyone.

Look at the bright side--the Minutemen had practically no notice to drop everything, leave the farms their livlihoods depended on, and muster out for who-knows-how-long to possibly lose their lives.