Second Amendment Sisters SAFER Rally, After Action Report 5/09/04

Sunday, May 9, 2004 | Kristinn

[kristinn]

The Second Amendment Sisters, some of whom here may remember were born on Free Republic, held their second national rally to counter the Million Mom March in Washington, D.C. today.

While both gatherings had fewer participants than expected, the turnout for the anti-gun MMMs had to be disappointing.

Four years ago, with a White House send off by President and Mr. Clinton, the MMMs claimed 750,000 people attended their Mothers Day rally in D.C. A year later, a few hundred returned to the nation's capital for the MMMs. This year, only 2,000 people made the Mothers Day trek to call for more gun control laws.

With the pro-choice march two weeks ago having drawn hundreds of thousands of supporters, it would seem that the liberal body politic has chosen abortion as its do-or-die issue this year, leaving the fight for more anti-gun laws on the back burner.

The Second Amendment Sisters also saw a sharp dropoff in attendance figures from four years ago. In 2000, about 5,000 people attended their pro-gun rights Mothers Day counter-rally in D.C. This year, about 300 supporters attended their SAFER Rally (Second Amendment Freedoms for Everyone Rally.)

In a strange twist, both organizations had their rally headquarters in the same hotel: The J.W. Marriott. Yesterday afternoon, dueling merchandise and information tables were set up forty feet apart in the lobby.

With the exception of a MMM t-shirt wearing woman who got on an elevator with a SASter and told her she wished she had a gun so she could shoot the SASter, things were pretty calm between the two camps.

MMM leader Donna Dees Thomases later apologized on behalf of MMM to SAS for the death threat.

The weather was perfect for rallies and marches in D.C. The SASters started setting up at Freedom Plaza, located at 14th Street and Pennsylvania Avenue, NW, around 6 a.m.

The MMMs started their set up at the West Lawn of the Capitol around midnight.

By 11 a.m., it was apparent to the SASters that they would be drawing a small crowd. They had planned for up to 5,000, the same as four years ago, but that was not to be.

However, the 300 or so people there stayed until the rally ended around 2:30 p.m. The speakers were excellent--the kind who don't make you want to start looking for a museum to escape to.

Shemane Nugent, Kay Daly, Niger Innis, John Lott, Jr., Re-Joyce Smith, and Sarah Roush (Miss Teen New Mexico, 2003) were among the many interesting and passionate speakers.

The rally was emceed by the very funny comedienne, Julie Gorin, from New York City.

Media interest was about what one could expect: The Washington Post and New York Times were there, as were WTOP-AM, WRC-TV, CNN, NRA-TV and ABC News.

There about two dozen FReepers in attendance, along with a few LPers.

FReepers I can remember seeing there include (chime in if I miss you): Angelwood, tgslTakoma, daughterofTgsl, Doctor Raoul, rabidralph, Scholastic, leadpenny, BufordP, stand watie, Badray, basil, pistolpknmama, dbwz, Pro2Amom, BruceFromMtVernon, Exit148, SaundraDuffy, gunsareOK and a few more whose screen names I can't recall.

LPers there were Fred Mertz and Cal.

Besides the rally, the SASters had meetings with their state coordinators and an awards reception the night before. Monday, they have a meeting scheduled on Capitol Hill.

The SASters would of course have liked to see more people attend their rally, but they still consider the entire effort a success. They got their name and message out in the media, their organizational meetings went well and they're primed to expand this year.

The MMMs, on the other hand, have been in freefall since after their first rally and are being propped up by liberal politicians, a sympathetic media and the Brady Campaign.

The SASters have been doing this on their own. The fact that a true grassroots group started on FR by five lady FReepers is still alive and kicking four years later is great news.

[stand watie]

actually, there 700-1000 was a more accurate number when l8 pilot & i went over there, i believe.

fyi, i've counted cattle milling, during my long-ago FFA days & not missed the number by more than 10%.

CROWD ESTIMATES are ROUTINELY INFLATED 2-10 times by the media.

free dixie,sw

[stand watie]

!!!!!!!

[bondjamesbond]

If I were a politician counting noses, I might think that the fact that 99.8% of the media-touted original number of marching moms decided to stay home in the year that the AWB sunsets, while the number of SAS members keeps going up each year, is telling me something...

What are you talking about? There were a Million Mothers out there on the Mall yesterday. It's right there in the name, silly. It may have looked like 2000, but it was a Million, by definition. Don't confuse facts with the important information.

[I still care]

Only 2000? Would never have known that by reading the WP article. According them, "thousands" of people showed up.

"Moms Unleash Their Anguish, Anger Thousands March to End Gun Violence, Renew Assault Weapons Ban By Eric Rich and Theola Labbé Washington Post Staff Writers Monday, May 10, 2004; Page B01 Several thousand people, most of them women, gathered on the West Lawn of the U.S. Capitol yesterday for the largest gun-control demonstration in four years, a loud and calculated effort aimed at forcing President Bush to renew the soon-to-expire federal ban on assault weapons."

Notice how the lead sentence is designed to give a wrong impression.

One of the most blatant area of bias by left papers that can be seen is the inflation and deflation of numbers of rallies that meet with the approval of the politically correct.

If someone wanted to take on an ambitious project, a website directed to aerial views of Wash DC rallies so that numbers could be truly estimated would be very enlightening.

I've seem the MMM from several years ago; and the promise keepers. But a running record of all these marches would be really interested for comparison.

[Travis McGee]

Not a MMM candidate!

[stand watie]

is that an UZI or a copy????

BLOAT!

free dixie,sw

[bondjamesbond]

I'd bet on one of her against a thousand of them...

[rabidralph]

I had a great time at the rally. I did have to leave early, but I met a few people and I enjoyed the speakers. Thanks, Angelwood and the others, for pulling this together.

[bondjamesbond]

Poor Jesse can't even get anybody to carry his sign for him! LOL!

[Travis McGee]

Uzi, not sure of the suppressor.

[Travis McGee]

At least!

[heylady]

I had a great Mother's Day going down to DC for the SAS rally! My daughter in law asked me to go with her..she's a red head from Texas so don't try to get between her and her RIGHT to carry a firearm.

Unfortunately we met up with a few of the "other" Moms when we were at Union Station on our way back to Ct. Let me tell you don't try to get in the way of one of these peace loving women when she is elbowing her way to the front of a line. She was shoving little old ladies out of the way assuming she was entitled to board the train first.

Despite being tired and sunburned, my daughter in law and I had the best time of our lives. Thanks to everyone who put so much hard work into making this rally a success.

[Redbob]

NOW is the time for us to roll back some of the worst gun control laws.

Now while the Dims recognize "gun control" to be political suicide, with but a handful of whacko supporters.

[68-69TonkinGulfYachtClub]

BOTH sides of the aisle need to wake up.

ON THE DAY BEFORE Thanksgiving 1993,
the 103d US Congress brought forth a constitutional turkey.
The 103d Congress decided that the Second Amendment did not mean what it said
("...shall not be infringed") and passed the Brady bill.
How the Brady Bill Passed (and subsequently - "Instant Check")
When the Brady Bill was passed into law on November 24, 1993,
the Senate voted on the Conference Report
and passed the Brady Bill by UNANIMOUS CONSENT.

[dljordan]

Looks like an UZI with a suppressor.

[Scholastic]

A warm thanks to the ever-decrepit Bob Dole!

[stand watie]

me neither.

free dixie,sw

[stand watie]

i'm GUESSING you're correct, though it MAY be a SA copy.

free dixie,sw

[stand watie]

the washington COMpost says that the SAS rally had only 65 attendees!

there were probably that many staff members.

so i guess that, according to the compost, NOBODY attended.

free dixie,sw

[stand watie]

the washinton TIMES said NOTHING about the SAS rally! and copied the 2,000 commie mommy figure.

!@#$%^&*!

free dixie,sw