Second Amendment Rally A Damp Squib

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4mFbMhXxHkQ

The Washington Post puts the number of [probable] gun owners rallying in the nation’s capitol today at 2000. The official Second Amendment March assembled slightly more warm bodies than TTAG entertains on a daily basis, a mass movement it ain’t. Whether by coincidence or design, the gun rights get-together did itself no favors by holding its pow-wow on the anniversary of the Oklahoma City bombing. And the question must be asked: what’s the big deal anyway? Which WaPo agrees. “The march comes at a time when the trend appears to be toward normalizing the carrying of firearms in public. Even before the U.S. Supreme Court’s 2008 decision in District of Columbia v. Heller recognized an individual’s constitutional right to possess firearms, an increasing number of states have allowed citizens to carry guns openly or conceal them on their person. Last year, 24 states loosened restrictions in firearms laws, and Iowa and Arizona passed laws this year easing restrictions on gun possession.” What’s more (or less), the other side of the “debate” are also having trouble in the attendance department . . .

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NRA Gambles on Low Profile

Whether motivated by safety concerns or responding to opposition voiced by its friends in Washington, The National Rifle Association (NRA) has opted out of the Second Amendment March gathering in Washington, D.C. today. The organization is also adopting a policy of non-engagement in the firearms freedom act sweeping the state’s rights community. The NRA’s non-strategy hasn’t escaped the Salt Lake Tribune’s attention: “The nation’s most influential gun-rights group is conspicuously absent — and nearly silent — in a growing battle between states and the federal government over gun control. The National Rifle Association has been taking a low profile when it comes to the firearms freedom acts that have been passed by seven state legislatures and spawned a growing legal fight between those states, some gun advocates and the U.S. Justice Department . . . Gun enthusiasts who launched the fight said they would like the NRA to be more assertive.”

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“Gun Nuts Will Protest 2nd Amendment By Bringing Their Guns Everywhere Today”

D.C. gossip site Wonkette has a morning alert for its readers re: today’s Second Amendment March “celebrating” gun rights. The accuracy of which starts with the headline’s proclamation that the marchers are protesting the Second Amendment. How much wrongerer could a quasi-journalist be? Watch. “A bunch of paranoid gun fanatics will gather today at two federal parks on the Virginia side of Potomac, taking advantage of new federal legislation signed by President Barack Obama, and using a federal park permit, to protest the federal government taking away the rights of paranoid gun fanatics to brandish their weapons and scream about the federal government.” I’m not sure what Wonkette is saying here (as usual), but it should be stressed (by someone somewhere) that the celebrants are not going to be armed.

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