Yoko Ono blames murder on guns

On Mothers Day, 4 of my 8 children and I attended the Washington DC March… the one /in favor/ of the Second Amendment, organized by AIM (Armed Informed Mothers) and SAS (Second Amendment Sisters). It was a wonderful rally. Suzanna Gratia-Hupp (www.house.state.tx.us/house/dist54/dist54.htm) was spellbinding. She told us of her ordeal that lead her to want to carry her gun with her at all times (she was at Luby’s Diner in Killeen, Tx, the day of the massacre, and watched her parents both get shot dead. Her gun, which she could have used to stop the slaughter, was in her car because Texas didn’t have Carry Permits available at the time). Her words brought me tears, goose bumps, and a conviction that carrying a handgun is the safest way to live these days.

After the talks, the SAS/AIM rally marched to the Capital. We were escorted by the police because the Million Mom Marchers were lining the streets showering us with jeers from the side. To me, that was OK since they do have the Right to Freedom of Speech. But then a police officer took off at a run up ahead, because of one of the Million Moms threw a rock at us. Later a young adult jumped on a car and (jeered at us?) acting like he was on PCP. I guess there’s a Right to Act Stupid, too.

Marching near the back of the AIM/SAS group with my children, I heard a MMM lady shout, “I HOPE YOU ARE SHOT DEAD BY A GUN!” That made me turn around. I saw this lady had grabbed the arm of my 9 year old son and was yelling at him! The anger and temper in that lady’s stance warned me if I didn’t get there she was going to hit my son and hit him hard. Before I could react to this violence my 15 Year old son got between them and warned her off. For the rest of the march I felt like a Convoy Escort in hostile waters, Black folk at a Klan rally.

That was not the end of the Million Mom Power play. As I walked back to my car, the jeers turned into insults, MMM women calling me a slut, a whore, trash and “I hope you are shot dead then maybe you will see guns are evil things.” I replied: “You live in a free country, you are not a slave to a master and bearing his bastard, and all this because someone was smart enough to pick up a gun and fight for his future and yours; guns are not evil, some people are evil”.

Debra Brunner, mother of 8, gun owner, supporter of the Second Amendment and the Second Amendment Sisters.

No one denies we need to curb violence involving misused guns, but I was still at least partially undecided about some gun-related issues until some weeks ago, on May 14th. I am writing to you in hopes of sharing my own experiences with you and your readers. I live in a semi-rural neighborhood, where police OPENLY admit to a 15 minute (or longer) response time to 911 calls. In fact, one unexpectedly forthright DC officer I spoke with said that 45 minutes is not at all uncommon in his precinct, and “We [officers] frequently [first respond and] take the first report the day after the crime if the call comes in at night [when there are apparently fewer officers on duty].” When I asked when most emergency calls actually come in, he half-smiled/half-grimaced for a moment and simply said “At night.” Fearing reprimand, he asked I not give his name in any of my writings.

Knowing that both MMM and Second Amendment Sisters would be present on the Mall in DC, I spoke with a few participants of both of their rallies, with the intent to educate myself before wholly passing judgment for either group. I asked both groups the same, somewhat open question : “Why are you, personally, here today?”

When I spoke to one member of the Million Moms, I was told “Because I have a great Mom, and it’s Mother’s Day!” When more specifically asked about guns, this person said they support fewer gun laws, and own several guns — they had no idea what Million Moms was asking for, and claimed they would be joining the SAS march after I spoke to them.

One younger gentleman very tellingly simply said “I get school credit for being here today. I don’t think I do if I support the SAS march.”

One family said they attended MMM because “The City of Richmond paid to bus my family up, and it’s a nice day for a picnic.”

One mother was wearing a stack of photos of her children around her neck — when I questioned her, she said three of her children were gang members, and had sadly been shot to death by Police. She said she “was [there] to ban guns because [she doesn't] know what else to do.” While my heart very sincerely goes out to her for her loss of her children, I couldn’t make a connection between banning civilian (non-Police) guns and the Police being forced to shoot gang members. There are just too many things wrong with that logic.

Another Mom said “I don’t want to own a gun because I am sometimes suicidal, and I tend to lose my temper frequently; I am afraid I might shoot my own children.” I must sincerely applaud her choice for not owning a gun, and her self awareness! When questioned “Do you think all mothers have the potential to kill their children?” she greatly surprised me by saying “Of course! Don’t you ever lose your temper?” I had to respectfully confess that while I HAVE been forced to defend my life several times, I have never ONCE lost my tempter enough to raise a fist, much less a gun. And to utterly lose control enough to raise a gun to an innocent child!?!? Quite honestly, anyone that would even distantly consider such a thing truly sickens me.

Ultimately, the emotion I got more than anything from the MMM group was simply an unfocused fear of their fellow armed citizens, ignorance of gun-related facts, and complete confusion as to what to do about violence in general. The one mother above said it best : “I just don’t know what else to do… so I’m here.”

When I spoke to people at the Second Amendment Sister’s gathering, I heard heartbreaking stories of being raped, family members being murdered in their own houses and in restaurants, churches and schools (where current laws forbid concealed carry), and over and over the same gist was independently restated : “If I had the gun I now carry, it would have been an easy shot to stop [that crime].” Even if I didn’t already generally agree with guns, I have to admit that this smaller group, to a one, had rational and strongly moving reasons for what they supported. Not one person I spoke with in the SAS group had any confusion over what they were there for.

Since I visited the SAS group second, they began their march while I was still talking to one indulgent young man. What happened next clinched my admittedly rapidly firming views : while I continued to talk to this gentleman, the opposing crowd we walked by began to throw things. At more than one intersection, we were actually spit on by the Million Mom supporters, many of whom were small children, apparently already being taught intolerance and disrespect of others. Several times, young shirtless men with red paint ‘bullet wounds’ shouted at us language I haven’t heard from seasoned sailors. When one of these boys yelled “I don’t trust you with a gun!” I have to admit agreeing with a woman next to me who answered “How can I trust YOU without one?”

At the end of the SAS march, the participants chanted “Thank You, Police” to our escorts, who unquestionably stopped several of the more violent attacks from the Million Moms.

As a result of the above fact finding and demonstrations, I personally believe in the right of responsible people to carry completely unrestricted; to choose how to secure their “life preservers” if they have children in their homes. I also support holding parents absolutely responsible for the actions of their children, whether those children abuse an otherwise legal firearm or abuse those who choose to legally own one.

Wolf N. Rose

My husband and I attended the MMM event at UCSC on Sunday 12/3/2000. I tried to attend the group’s “open” meeting in October and was turned away so technically this was my second contact with the MMM. I think we were allowed in this time because our group was so large and well mannered. However we were certainly not welcomed with smiles or open arms. In fact one of my fellow MC members told me that as one male MMM member walked past our group to go into the meeting room, he said to his children

“These people are right-wingers who don’t care about little children like you getting killed.”

It was said clearly and loudly. When he received a response from one of our people, he was extremely antagonistic, and said something like we (NRA members) don’t care that more of our children die than in disarmed societies. After the movie, he walked past us our group again and loudly said to his children

“Stay close to me because I don’t want you around all of these gun nuts.”

While I don’t think he represents the majority of MMM members, we must not allow these comments to provoke us. Always take the high road. However, that man’s actions and rude, ignorant comments need to be a wake up call for us on how to make your organization look bad. I certainly learned a lesson. Too bad the press that was there didn’t hear him.

During the meeting we watched their video, America Up in Arms, which left me cold and shocked. When the organizer spoke about how this grassroots group (MMM) was not going to go away I kept saying to myself, “Neither are we.” I’m sure we made her more than a little nervous – speaking to the “enemy” and all. But as Don Kilmer said when we met in the parking lot before the meeting began, “We are here to put a face on law abiding gun owners.” It’s easier to hate someone you’ve never met.

Surprisingly our group consisted of more women and children than the MMM group including Rae Ellen, a delightful women in a motorized wheelchair who brought her companion golden retriever. She was concerned that the MMM would think she supported their views because she wasn’t wearing any NRA clothing. These are the people who really cannot afford to have the MMM succeed in their mission.

Don’t fool yourself with thinking this is a loosely held group, they are highly organized, well funded and determined to disarm law abiding citizens. Unfortunately they have incorporated children into their spin – tugging at the heart strings by profiling people who have lost children in accidental shootings. Like HCI they are using the medical profession to push the need for more handgun regulations. According to their local organizer, nationally there are 270 chapters in 46 states. They claim to have support from the NEA, ABA and a Physicians association (didn’t catch the name).

At the meeting they also mentioned an educational program they are planning to introduce in select middle and high schools across the nation, I believe it’s called AskingSavesKids (ASK). It would be interesting to find out which schools will have the ASK program and then approach those school boards to petition them to include the Eddie Eagle program as well. Apparently ASK has a web site by the same name. At the meeting we watched two ASK PSAs. While I support parents discussing guns with children, these efforts don’t seem to about instilling responsible gun ownership but merely removing guns from the home. Both PSAs showed examples of kids finding handguns in the home and using them to shoot friends. One is found under the parents’ bed and the other in a top dresser drawer. BTW, two of our female MC members walked out of the meeting and left because they were so disgusted by the MMM propaganda.

In short, each of us needs to continue to speak up about our cause and continue to put a face on law abiding gun owners. As the mother of a 7 month old son, I am in regular contact with other mothers and when appropriate I use the opportunity to discuss the gun issue. I certainly don’t shove my pro-gun, Second Amendment beliefs down their throats; instead I find out where they stand on the issue and then try to figure out why they feel as they do. One mom said she disliked the NRA because her father did. But then there are the little victories that give me hope like when one of my liberal mommy friends told me,

“Last night I was thinking about what you said and if they can mess with the Second Amendment, they can mess with the First.”

She finally “got it.”

Keep up the good fight.

Rebecca Anderson
Treasurer-Elect NRAMCMB

Mary Leigh Blek, chief statist of the so-called “Million Mom March,” has gone from having my sympathy — as a mother who lost a son to murderers — to bearing the full brunt of my ire. This woman has received free ink in major newspapers across the country pushing her animosity toward President-elect Bush’s nominee for U.S. Attorney General, former Missouri Governor and Senator, John Ashcroft. I’d expect no less from emotion-driven, fact-impoverished liberal statists than plenty of free press, but this anti-rights person just went too far, too many times, and I can’t hold my tongue any more.

She’s calling herself a Republican. Adjectives I’ve seen printed before the word “Republican” in reference to Mrs. Blek include but are not limited to: staunch, devout, longtime, etc. etc. ad infinitum.

Give me a break, Lady!

NO real, self-respecting Republican would support bans on handguns, but the so-called “Million Mom March” did, not long ago, in a town in Illinois.

NO real, self-respecting Republican would support licensing a fundamental civil right, but the so-called “Million Mom March” does; it’s a main plank on their pre-confiscation agenda.

NO real, self-respecting Republican would support the registration of guns and their owners, either. They know that registration has led to confiscation throughout the history of the gun, and they know guns = freedom. But Mrs. Blek, blaming guns for the criminal actions of the murderers who killed her son, doesn’t seem to care about little things like ADOLF HITLER! Nevermind Pol Pot, Mao Tse Tung and all the other police state (where only police have guns) heroes. Not Mrs. “Republican” Blek, no sir.

When is the last time you VOTED Republican, Mary Leigh BS Artist? And at that time, was the so-called “Republican” an American standing up for the Constitutional Republic, or the watered down “Democratic” political system you and your kind worship? Did you vote for Al “The Constitution is a living document” Gore? Your organization sure put a lot of energy into sticking it to America with him in the Clinton-tarnished white house. Republican? Sheesh.

If Mary Leigh “40,000 Mom Picnic” Blek is a Republican, I’m a Democrat-Socialist.

On Monday, January 29th, in the words of their press release, “The Santa Clara County chapter of the Million Mom March invites the public to attend…” their first meeting. This was published in the San Jose Mercury News, and Janet Conn, a project manager at Cisco Systems (http://www.cisco.com/), made an appearance on television news that morning promoting the meeting.

Featured speakers were to be San Jose Police Chief Willam Lansdowne, Los Gatos Police Chief Larry Todd, and Santa Clara County District Attorney Stan Voyles.

Silicon Valley NRA Members’ Council president Daryl Davis spoke with Ms. Conn, who just days before the meeting had said that gun-rights supporters would be admitted on a space-available basis in the 200-seat ballroom, and would be allowed to sit and listen if they were not disruptive. Based on the conduct of self-defense supporters at the Santa Cruz meeting of the MMM, she had absolutely no reason to expect otherwise.

But when nearly 100 supporters of the right to armed self-defense arrived at 6:00pm, and the MMM faced the prospect of being outnumbered two to one by self-defense advocates, the rules of the game changed.

The meeting was no longer “open to the public,” but instead, what Duane Darr described as an ideological “brown paper bag” test was administered at the door. Just as in the Jim Crow south, where you were denied entry if you were darker than a brown paper bag pinned to the door, here you were denied entry if you were less than an enthusiastic supporter or member of the MMM.

One woman, who lost her cousin to the infamous “Night Stalker” serial killer in Los Angeles, and who as a result believes that every woman deserves the choice to use firearms in self-defense, was told, “you’re not the kind of victim we’re looking for.” She was rebuffed even after she offered to pay $20 and join the MMM just to get in the meeting.

Another woman was asked by Janet Conn to turn off a tape recorder she was using to record the meeting.

What are they afraid of the public finding out, I wonder? Based on these comments from an anonymous attendee of the meeting, it would appear that it’s the utter hypocrisy of our public officials:

“The second speaker, Chief Lansdowne, was easy to understand — he seems to change his firearms stance based on the audience he is speaking to. At this MMM meeting, he used many superlatives describing the MMM efforts to pass strong anti-gun ownership legislation. He also spoke of his efforts to shut down gun dealers and gun shows in the San Francisco East Bay while chief of police in Richmond. When he spoke at the Silicon Valley NRA Members’ Council this past year, he strongly supported the firearms group.”

Chief Lansdowne is the former Chief of the Richmond, California police department, which is being sued along with the Contra Costa county Sheriff by Jim March over discriminatory practices, cronyism, and racial redlining in the issuance of concealed carry permits. http://www.dd-b.net/~equalccw/

“Chief Todd was the third speaker. He talked about strategy in passing gun control legislation. He said the MMMers should not vote for all gun control proposals, but rather vote for selected bills. He says the goal is to eliminate the gun culture in the this country, and that it needs to be done slowly, to avoid angering the people who disagree with gun control. Chief Todd is a member of several police organizations, and active on their respective gun control policy committees. He said it is good to have a mixture of doctors, police and victims as part of the MMM contingent. I found it odd that he also thought it was nice that people were rising up against gun control like people did in the ’70′s against the Vietnam War. Again, for those who care, he wore his shield on his left breast pocket while making the presentation in a gray jacket and tie. If he appears in public on duty in this outfit, he was in uniform while making this presentation.”

[ For a flyer to pass around about Police Chief Larry "Oath Breaker" Todd, choose one of the following formats, and send it far and wide:  .html - .pdf ]

Chief Todd is one of the more outspoken gun-haters in our region of the country. However, he has the distinction of running a department that recorded the actual commission of a grisly murder on a 911 tape, while the unarmed victim was waiting for the good guys with guns, Chief Todd’s employees, to arrive.

Chief Todd says that the goal is to “eliminate the gun culture,” hmm, where have we heard that before? Ah yes, Hitler’s goal was to eliminate the Jewish culture in Europe. And indeed, he proceeded towards that goal slowly and behind closed doors, to avoid angering the people who disagreed with it.

Who says that the gun-banners haven’t learned anything from history?

With respect to the “in uniform” question – California Government Code section 3206 reads:

3206. No officer or employee of a local agency shall participate in political activities of any kind while in uniform.

“Assistant Santa Clara District Attorney Stan Voyles was perhaps the most inflammatory of the speakers. He presented the facts and statistics that the MMM uses to justify its cause. He cited numbers showing gun homicides in the US versus other industrialized countries. He reiterated that over 3,000 children are killed with firearms each year in the US. He then went on to contrast those values with numbers killed in wars. Voyles then illustrated that the weapon of choice in California for a majority of crimes was the handgun. Then he went on the offensive against the NRA and stated that what the NRA has to say about the Second Amendment amounts to fraud. Could the MMM’s be planning a new law suit strategy against the NRA? He went on to claim that there are no court cases supporting the individual ownership interpretation and that NRA has abandoned any Second Amendment arguments to oppose gun control.”

The firearms rights contingent is being accused of “fraud” while he’s calling 17, 18, and 19 year-old gang members “children.”

He’s accusing us of “fraud” when the MMM claims in their flyer - http://www.scmillionmommarch.org/flyer2.pdf - that 77% of all incidents of school violence involve guns, when the study they cite -http://www.nssc1.org/savd/savd.htm - only touches on DEATHS, not “all incidents,” and the 77% is out of 281 incidents over 8 years, or 75 millionths of one percent of the 47 million public school students.

“MMM Founder Mary Leigh Blek was the next speaker. We could not stay for much of her presentation. However, we found it strange that she is a professed Republican yet a huge supporter of Hillary Rodham Clinton and efforts to pass stronger gun control legislation in the US Senate.”

Who’s REALLY being fraudulent, I wonder? Who was really lying to the 50 attendees of that meeting, District Attorney Stan Voyles, Mary Leigh Blek, or the 100 people standing 100 yards away from the hotel entrance on the public sidewalk, carrying signs that read “Armed Women Prevent Rape?”

I can’t adequately express my pride at being associated with the crowd of stalwart self-defense supporters who braved the chilly night air for three hours to stand out on the sidewalk in front of the Marriott holding signs and waving at honking passerby.

These people, individuals of all races, from all walks of life, are the true patriots. And though they were not allowed in to the meeting to hear what their elected public officials had to say, and indeed were not even allowed on the property of the hotel, working together we scored a victory for freedom and against those who would conspire behind closed doors to take away our right to choose.

Predictably, press coverage was minimal – Channel 11, even after being called and told of the hundred assembled freedom advocates in front of the hotel, did not show up. Channel 4 took some tape, but aired a cursory report the following morning. Reportedly, the Mercury News was there, but I have yet to see a report on the exclusion of the public from this meeting.

What’s important to note is that California has had some of the most stringent gun control laws in the nation, nearly every point of legislation that the MMM calls for, yet the leading tool of choice for criminals here is still the handgun.

The failure to recognize this fact leads me to conclude that the efforts of the MMM in California are not primarily about crime and violence prevention, but rather nothing short of a cultural war against law-abiding gun owners. Where will this lead? Certainly not to less crime and violence.

The insights gained at this meeting are valuable, as they help us know what we are up against — a deliberately slow, systematic, destruction of the law-abiding gun-owner’s way of life through stealthy and innocuous legislation crafted behind a rope barrier, an idealogical litmus test, and closed doors, in a meeting that was fraudulently advertised as “open to the public.”

When you are standing in line for the showers, it’s too late to object.

We need to get active, loud, and involved. Join your local NRA Members’ Council in California - http://www.ca-rkba.org/. If there’s not one in your area, start one! Don’t wait for someone else to take action before you “have time” to defend your freedoms.

Stand up against the systematic destruction of the “gun culture,” *your* culture! Get in the game, because Chief Todd sure is.

Michael Pelletier
Self Defense is Common Sense
http://www.a-human-right.com/  

http://www.firearmsfreedom.net/guncontrol/