Yesterday, February 24, 2013, was the day citizens celebrated the Day of Resistance here in Midland. The previous day was the day many other communities celebrated it, the number 223 coinciding with the caliber used by the rifle gun controllers call an "assault rifle."
The event was not very widely publicized -- I caught the announcement at CBS7 -- however, 30 or 40 people found out about it and cared enough to attend. And they were rewarded with some good talks about the freedoms we have here in the United States.
Outdoor rallies don't draw a lot of people in Midland. But contrast the 30 to 40 people attending this rally with the thousands who visited the gun show a couple of weeks ago. The attitude about the 2nd Amendment was evident at both places. But the gun show attendees voted with their time and their money. Perhaps the way to draw a crowd to any future gun rally would be to offer a gun related prize, a box of scarce .22 caliber bullets, for example.
Anyway, Paul Gossett (photo above) gave a good speech with lots of colorful examples to make his points. For example, the University of Colorado recently put forth a list of ten things a woman could do to avoid rape, such as urinating or vomiting. But the obvious omission was any suggestion that an armed woman would not only be less likely to be a target but could better fend off a potential rapist. (The list has since been removed due to blistering ridicule.)
He knew how to please those of us with short attention spans. Here are a few of his good one-liners:
Gun control isn't the problem. Self control is the problem.
Congress can't pass a budget. And the president can't pass a background check.
We don't need gun control, we need idiot control.
Mr. Gossett told how DEA agents recently swarmed his neighborhood looking for a dangerous suspect. He asked one of them if he should be worried. The response was that he had nothing to worry about, "if we get to him first." But what if they don't? That's the issue. Police aren't always around, and Americans have a right to defend themselves.
Former Navy Seal, Jason Pike, also addressed the crowd. He's the guy in the photo on the left. Then Mark Manning read William Travis' agonizing plea for help just prior to the storming of the Alamo by Mexican troops. What great timing. The Travis letter was recently in the news as it traveled to San Antonio for public display.
Unfortunately, remembering the Alamo is probably politically incorrect in certain quarters these days. But it certainly makes a person think. The people defending the Alamo were willing to die for what they believed in. Yet we sit back and relax as our freedoms erode before our eyes.
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