Posted on 03/23/2002 8:37:56 AM PST by lowbridge
You would think that a forum being held at a college in Los Angeles (arguably, but hardly so, Gun Control Capitol of the West) with the topic "Gun Ownership vs. Gun Control - Which Is Safer?" would present a safe haven for the emotional rhetoric of gun-controllers like Charles Blek and impressionable youngsters like Jennifer Mendoza.
However, when a debate is sponsored by a Libertarian group such as Students For Individual Liberty, the emotionalism that works so well with the gun-control True Believers and collegiate skulls full of mush is just so much raw meat to be tossed before hungry tigers.
L.A. Harbor College in Wilmington, California was the setting for this debate this past Wednesday, and not a chair was available. When there is the promise of podium-chewing action between the biggest anti-gun female group in America and an up-and-coming activist group that focuses on women's support of the Second Amendment, it's not likely those on the stage will outnumber their audience.
Taking the side of the Second Amendment were wife and mom Anna Zetchus Raetz, spokeswoman for Liberty Belles, and Randy Herrst of the Center For The Study Of Crime. Both came armed with confidence, statistics, and knowledge of the Constitution.
On the side of gun control were Charles Blek of the Orange County Citizens For Prevention Of Gun Violence (and wife to Million Mom March general Mary Leigh Blek) and Jennifer Mendoza, an L.A. Harbor College student in favor of gun control, armed only with emotion, sound bites, and in Miss Mendoza's case, unsourced statistics. Miss Mendoza is a very sweet, pretty young lady, but she smiled nervously throughout the proceedings and was unable to provide any backing for her claims. Mr. Blek seemed very uncomfortable with the notion that talk of his son's tragic murder by thugs with guns and a few well-placed statements on the populace's desire for more gun control laws and police support for those laws were not going to be nearly enough to make his case for "responsible gun control".
Each of the speakers were permitted about ten minutes each for opening statements.....
Rest of article here:
http://www.libertybelles.org/events/debate.htm
Anyway, I'm glad you said that - about feeling sorry for him - AND glad that you whupped butt in the debate! Goodonya!
AnnaZ, what an outstanding job!!!!!!!!!!
Anna, the only reason I would ever want to move away from my family and friends here in the heart of conservative Bible-belt America and head on out to left-coast enemy territory would be in order to be able to join forces with you and Merc! To be an activist, gun totin' female here in rural south-central Pennsylvania is something of an anomaly (yawn). To be an activist female Second Amendment defender out in your neck of the woods requires a little more courage and resolve. Thanks for exhibiting an abundance of both. :)
Went to a local auction house gun auction this afternoon and had some interesting conversations with fellow (and prospective fellow) gun owners. To a man (unfortunately, there were very few women in attendance) they believed that it is just a matter of time before the Charles Bleks (pitouie!) and Jennifer Mendozas of this world have their way with our freedom to defend ourselves (from the criminal element, and....much more ominous, to my mind....form the would-be tyrants).
There seem to be two types of anti-Second Amendment women: (1) those of the Sarah Brady ilk....the my-husband-is-no-longer-the-man-he-used-to-be, so-I-am-going-to-make-myself-feel-better-by-allowing-myself-to-be-used-as-a-pawn-by-the-extra-Constitutionalist-subjugators mindset -- of which Charles Blek appears to be a male prototype, or (2) the Jennifer Mendoza (aka Rosie O'Donnell) ilk....the ostensibly Million, but really only a couple o' thousand Mom March type, who are in search of a cause celebre, and who use their so-called higher indoctrination education to exhibit to the world their catechism-learned hand-wringing concern for the masses (at the risk of redundancy, pitouie! here, too)
It's really very sad to witness the Charles Bleks of this world, who have suffered a personal tragedy as the result of the use (by a person willfully bent on causing injury or death) of a gun, funneling their grief into causes which not only further the leftist, disarm-the-citizenry agenda, but also dishonoring the memory of the loved one for whom they are grieving. Do they not realize that their efforts aimed at rendering their fellow citizens defenseless would simply cause others to experience the same pain that they themselves are trying to assuage by becoming crusaders against the right to keep and bear arms?
It sounds as though you handled Mr. Blek (et al) with a skillful combination of informed rebuke....and tact. Thanks, Anna. You done us all proud!
LOL We are very fortunate to have women of such beauty and intellect fighting for our Second Amendment rights!
( Lowbridge, be careful posting so many photos at once -- some of us are trying to get by with older hardware! ) ;^/
Yes sir, These Liberty Belles are showing that THEY have the 'right stuff'!
They make a 'rock-wall' reality check for a bunch of gun-grabbing liberals!
It sure does. I had a vague memory of picking that phrase up a couple of years ago. Within 20 seconds of searching for it on google I tracked down the source.
I had fun harassing the first MMM'ers. I lived in the DC area at the time, but I couldn't make it downtown to join the counter-march. So I (with a hastily recruited friend) leafleted all the cars at an outlying metro station with pro-gun pamphlets. I figured there last thoughts of the day would be coming out of the metro-station to find pro-gun material on their windshields.
I did coin the term "Million John March", after seeing the countless porta-potties lining the mall the night before the "march".
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