Thursday, June 28, 2012

The CSGV Protest That Wasn't: Redux

Sitting on my throne, I was browsing through the June '12 copy of NRA's 1st Freedom magazine and saw this in the Letter from the Editor column:
"While taking a break in the pressroom during the recent NRA AM in St louis, I overheard some members of the press lamenting the fact that they couldn't find a good protest to cover.

One mentioned he had walked several blocks attempting to find a planned protest but never found it. Another mentioned that she too had walked all the way around outside the convention center in hopes of running across protesters, but she too, had come up empty handed"
Well that sounded awfully familiar.  Why? Because that was me and Bitter talking about the failed CSGV protest that afternoon.
(flashback)
After having listened to politicians and reading venomous tweets all Friday afternoon, it was w/ great joy that I saw the tweet from the CSGV touting their 'protest' the next afternoon at 1pm in front of the convention hall. After a morning on the floor, I was giddy w/ anticipation at finally meeting my buddy Ladd Everitt.

So myself, Sebastian, Bitter, Lawdog, several other bloggers and a few MSM types were dutifully waiting outside at the appointed hour.

And we waited.  And waited.

Nothing. Zip. Nada.

We circled the building (that would be the 'she' noted above) just to see if we missed something then went back inside. Sebastian called me w/ a report that the protesters were going to meet near the arch and march to the convention.  Time for a walk. This was about 1:30pm. So I hiked down Washington and up 4th street all the way to the arch, passing the infamous Dred Scott courthouse.  (where the protest had apparently fizzled in the rain before I got there)

Nothing. Zip. Nada.

Back to the convention hall where I met up w/ the bloggers and told them the non-story w/ a nice cold soda after hiking several miles in the sun and humidity that came out after the rain.
(back on the throne)
Then I started reading the rest of the article :
They looked demoralized. Their quest for the Holy Grail of the NRA meeting - rabid anti-gunners vehemently protesting the gun lobby- had ended in failure. 
Their conversation conveyed what the bulk of the mainstream media sees as "news' at any NRA function.  They look for controversy. They look for someone to say how out of touch the NRA is.  They seek those who will put the worst spin possible on our organization, all in the name of so-called "News".
During the two hours they had spent lugging cameras around looking for protesters, I had found out the true story of the NRA AM......"
Well now. Isn't that special.  I'm an Endowment Member of the NRA, Life member of the SAF, Annual member and Web team member of the ISRA and annual member of GSL.  Sebastian and Bitter are Patron/Life members respectively and both NRA EVC's.  We weren't 'demoralized' but instead disappointed that we didn't get to do a little 'active activism' by outnumbering the Anti's at their own protest and getting a few choice quotes for blog fodder. Running around in the rain then heat and humidity didn't help either.

There were more pro-gun bloggers in attendance than there were MSM's which are generally regarded as a joke anymore. While I may have been sitting in the pressroom talking about 'reasonable gun laws', it was w/ a heavy dose of sarcasm and I spent days lugging around my camera and laptop showing the 'True Story' of the AM, just as I've done previously , at numerous IGOLD's and a GRPC..

"I" am the modern Main Stream Media and a gun owner/activist.

Bitter's take is here


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