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Here is a news email from VCDL covering the event. I wish I could have been there but paying the bills takes priority.
I am not sure if the links will work.
1. ODU Protest wrap up - a big success!
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Today 30 VCDL volunteers passed out over **1,200** flyers to ODU students, faculty, and staff in a 3 hour period!
Many students on campus were wearing our "No guns? NO FUNDS!" and "Guns Save Lives" stickers, taking our message all over campus. There was a constant flow of students interested in our mission, keeping all of us running at full steam for most of the afternoon.
The students were almost universally very nice, polite and had plenty of questions. We got a lot of thanks from them for working so hard to get campus carry.
We carried signs saying:
Gun Free Zones
Don't Exist
Fairy Tale:
No Crime Here!
Alumni say:
No Guns?
No Funds!
Stop Enabling
Campus Predators
Students Have
Rights, Too
Self Defense
is a Human Right
Disarmed for my own good?
Better to BE safe than FEEL Safe!
Crime happens
-
Dennis O'Connor had a "drive-through brochuring" thing going on. Dennis would lean out, brochure in hand, so students on their way to class riding bicycles, skateboards, and golf carts could snatch it as they whizzed by. ;-)
About 40 yards away, the antis gathered. They pretty much stood in a line holding identical signs saying, "No guns on campus." Mostly they looked morose. The interest levels from students were a small fraction of what we had on our side. I was expecting they would have had more interest than they did - it was an eye opener.
They did a little chanting for the media, "Books, not guns!"
Yeah, books would have stopped Cho.
Some students went to talk to the antis first and then came to talk to us. Several told us that the antis started yelling at them if they asked any questions. One foreign exchange student told Dennis O'Connor, "They're CRAZY over there!" ;-)
An older woman came from the anti side to ours and was getting in right in people's faces seemingly trying to incite an incident. She failed, of course. But for a while Dennis was looking around for the police in case she got out of hand.
A few others antis came over and a decent and friendly debate ensued with some of our members (now that I was glad to see). And during the afternoon more than a few of those who started on the other side of the issue seemed to be genuinely reconsidering that position as they left with our literature in hand.
Our members did a great job and I was proud of them all. It was a thoroughly enjoyable afternoon, made all the more so by the heartfelt thanks from grateful students.
I highly recommend you come to one of these protests and have as good a time as we all did.
I expect Virginia Tech on November 17th to be a very big event with national media coverage.
VCDL thanks the ODU College Republicans for standing proudly with us and hosting the event! (Meanwhile the ODU College Democrats are apparently still struggling with that elusive "freedom thingy.")
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2. Media coverage
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A little media bias in some of this coverage, but we got our message out.
From WVEC.com:
http://tinyurl.com/3ukjbxc
From WAVY.com:
http://tinyurl.com/3c7u4bs
From WTKR.com:
http://tinyurl.com/3u73nsy
From the Virginian-Pilot:
http://tinyurl.com/3b8hxcc
