TexasCHLforum.com

fickman wrote: We had one heckler about 30 minutes before the event started, a young male on a bicycle drove by screaming "people with guns kill people" and other silly phrases. We mostly laughed. Nobody got enraged. He didn't slow down. Then somebody behind me pointed out a great observation: he demonstrated in his actions that he didn't feel we were as threatening as he accused us of being with his mouth, or he wouldn't have confronted 1,000+ gun owners on a public street. If he thought we were loose canons, he would've fled the city on the day we came to town.

That was me.

Thanks for sharing your thoughts on the event. It was definitely the safest place in Austin that day.

The thing I haven't seen mentioned much is the DPS presence. There were very few cops there in relation to the crowd size, and all of them were very polite and professional. I appreciated their conduct, and caught some of them nodding in agreement with more than a few of the speakers.

Bennies wrote: Sorry I couldn't hang out and chat a little longer.

It's alright, you had work to do with that petition!

I know you said you know the organizer, so I'd to convey my thanks to him for organizing such an excellent event on such short notice, and offer to lend a hand if his group decides to do anything else.

The rally today was great because it showed us that there are lots of people willing to fight for our rights. Now we need to keep working together to preserve them.

Seriously, anything I can do to help yall out, let me know.

Had a great time at the rally. This is cross posted for a nation wide forum, so apologies for the Texas stuff yall already know. I'd estimate at least 1000+ showed up, and more trickled in late after I took the big crowd shots at 11:55, so it could have been closer to 1,500 by the time we were done.

Here's a picture of the State Capitol:



The Capitol building has metal detectors, but if you have a CHL you get to bypass them. Concealed Carry is allowed in the Capitol.



Gratuitous picture of the Capitol building:



Some of the guys from TexasCHLforum.com:



Crowd shots taken 5 minutes before the event started:











Texas sized protest banner:



Texas Democrats: More gun friendly than New York Republicans.



It wouldn't be a protest without at least a few morons. Infowars types made sure to try and get behind the speakers so any photo taken would have their stupid "9/11 inside job" crap behind the speakers. Way to make us look good, guys.



Some of my favorite signs:











Thanks to Hondaciv for bringing the BFL flag so I could find and meet some fellow AR15.com guys.



My favorite shot from the event:



Good image to end on:




ETA: Higher resolution versions of these pictures can be seen here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/92385942@N02/

Great turnout, nice to meet some of y'all.

I'll upload some pictures tonight when I get home.

Look forward to seeing everyone tomorrow.

I decided to forgoe the sign in favor of my Canon Rebel so I can upload some pictures of the hopefully large and respectful crowd in case the media tries to trivialize the size or quality of the event.

I'll be wearing black dress shoes, jeans, and a black button up shirt. Mid 20s, 6 foot tall, dark short hair and beard. I'll try to introduce myself to anyone I see with a texaschlforum sign. Looking forward to a good event.

Relevant quote from Churchill:

If you will not fight for right when you can easily win without blood shed; if you will not fight when your victory is sure and not too costly; you may come to the moment when you will have to fight with all the odds against you and only a precarious chance of survival. There may even be a worse case. You may have to fight when there is no hope of victory, because it is better to perish than to live as slaves.

If you're on the fence about coming tomorrow, please reconsider and show up. A huge turnout for this thing sends a very clear message about how important our gun rights are to us. A low turnout sends a less positive message about what priority it holds.

I'd rather do some fighting in the "no pain, suffering, or blood loss required" period. How about yall?

Bump.

This thing almost fell off the front page of this section.

I want to keep encouraging people to come. Strength in numbers and all that.

Obama just said the American public wanted new gun laws.

I hope hundreds of thousands of gun owners show up this saturday all across the country to prove him wrong.

canvasbck wrote:

74novaman wrote:Thinking about this for a sign:

" I saw a movie once where only the police and military had guns. It was called Schindlers List."

I keep a "quote of the month" on my office corkboard.............this is now on the corkboard.

Well heck, since everyone likes it, I know what my sign will say.

I'll be the mid 20s dark haired guy with a beard (well trimmed) in jeans and a black polo shirt. Come say hi.

Thinking about this for a sign:

" I saw a movie once where only the police and military had guns. It was called Schindlers List."

Jaguar wrote: So, to go or not to go? Not sure at this time; it is difficult to separate the person posting here from the event itself.

My post was mainly tongue in cheek. There may be some hotheads there who make us look bad.. but that's why a lot of us should show up looking professional, polite and determined to protect our rights and outnumber them.

I'm going to go. Anywhere the Texas CHL forum people are going to meet up before hand? (only read the last few pages, apologizes if I missed a rally point earlier).

Well I was considering going, but if pirate is representative of the sort you might encounter at such an event, I think I'll stick to donating to the NRA-ILA, writing letters and calling congress critters.

Pirate, Charles has done more for the 2nd amendment in Texas than you, I or 10 other members of this forum combined have.

If you can't debate in a calm, rational manner with folks like Charles or AR who are on your side, how the heck do you expect to convince irrational anti gunners that they're on the wrong side of the issue? Some food for thought.