Pro gun protest displays/props?

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Guy B. Meredith

Guy B. Meredith

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(Moderator--please move this to General Discussion if it is appropriate so that I can get wider input.)

What type of props, displays or settings are used by pro gun 'counter-protesters'? Usually I see something along the line of overhead banners and some carry signs but have yet to get off my can and be there to see what is really happening.

Last night I could not get to sleep as several things kept buzzing through my mind, one being the idea of developing an 'industrial strength' educational display for counter protests and other events. Basically it would involve kiosk style displays like those at local street art fairs (at least as practiced in the SF Bay area) built around the theme of "Racism, Prejudice, Elitism and Myths of Gun Control." Might have a couple of new ideas to offer, even one or two approaching the emotive level of the antis.

I would like to get a run down on the current props to see if I have missed the boat somewhere. If the idea still seems useful after input, I will post a link or document sketching out a few more details for consideration.
 
Langenator,

BlackManWithAGun is not coming up in either Mozilla or IE on my system. I had gone there for some of the info on racism, but just get a copyright statement and an image placemarker.
 
Guy:

If you want to get some emotional payload into the display, have a discussion of the role of gun control in state sponsored mass killings of unarmed civilians in the 20th century. 170 million dead, unarmed civilians agree: Gun Control Sucks.

Google up "Innocents Betrayed" @ jpfo.

There's a lot of stuff on the relationship of civilian disarmament to Genocide around, I think Kopel, Kleck and Lott cover ground there too.
 
geekWithA.45,

Some of my thoughts were to have items on the Myth display like playbacks of 911 calls where you can hear the victim being fatally stabbed or beaten as they speak to the police. Immediate emotional link to situations where police protection is not a reality. I remember one a while back of a man talking to the operator while his 'friend' is repeatedly stabbing him to death.

No gun related 911 calls as that is already a given in the oppositions' minds and we want to broaden their perspective.

On the Elitism display one thought is to have photos of anti speakers or other people immediately identifiable next to a photo of their secure mansions and perhaps of their armed body guards. Perhaps some quick information on the crime stats in their neighborhoods.

Next to the above would be photos of victims and their neighborhoods, maybe stats on police response time and release of felons into the neighborhood.

Other lesser possibilities would be buckets and child swimming pools with signs on them designating their position on the list of dangers to children and mug shots of gang member "children" involved in shootings along side the numbers the antis use.
 
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who is the audience?

a big banner and a table full of take home pamphlets werks fer us in the MD TRT
 
I went to Knott's Berry Farm in Buena Park, CA and bought several copies of the Bill of Rights and single page Constitution. I then tore some of them in two from top to bottom and, since this was a protest against then CA AG Dan Lundgren, mounted them on a larger poster board that said "Dan Lundgren's Bill of Rights".

I took others and redacted portions with a black felt marker and pasted them to similar poster boards stating "Dan Lundgren's new Constitution", etc.

Use your imagination. The Constitution and BoR copies are about a dollar (maybe more now) and are printed on look-alike dark yellow parchment. They look like the real thing, just smaller.

Mount the torn copies like this / \ for effect -- nearly touching at the top and skewed about two inches at the bottom. Use white posterboard for contrast.

Good hunting. :cool:
 
Harry,

The idea is to be more aggressive about drawing in and educating the hard core types that would treat your literature like pornography (At least the hard core types that don't like pornography. Hmmm... Dunno, maybe antis like porn. Nah, they treat talking about guns like sex was treated in the 50s--don't talk about it and the kids won't do it).

Lessee along with the Bigotry , Prejudice, Elitism and Myth displays there could be a Diversity Center (NRA, GOA and shooting class enrollment to reduce the proportion of white males in those organizations) and a Meditation Center (paintball or whatever is legal) shooting gallery for the meditation benefits of centering on the front sight.

Maybe a Well, DUH! kiosk listing each of the safety rules with photos of the anti speakers of note violating the rules directly below each and a list that shows people are X times more likely to be injured with a gun if one is kept in the house followed by how many more times likely to be in an auto accident if driving a car, how many more times likely to drown in the back yard if a pool is located there, etc.
 
If the protest is against the MMM, get a copy of the Washington Post articles from June 27, 2001 and January 24, 2001 on a woman named Barbara Graham. She was a highlighted speaker at the DC MMM who subsequently shot the wrong man with a stolen handgun which "belonged" to her dead son. She thought the man she shot was the man who killed her son; but he was not and she crippled him for life.

Make up flyers to hand out that have the 6-27-01 Washington Post article on Barbara Graham. Highlight the paragraph that states:
Still, Graham had her supporters. Throughout her trial, she was backed by the leader of Mothers on the Move Spiritually, a Prince George's County group that helped organize the Million Mom March against gun violence in May 2000.

In another one of the case's ironies, Graham had become active in the group after her 19-year-old son, Le'Pierre Clemons, was killed -- and before she was arrested in her Capitol Heights home with two guns in her bedside table.
Click to expand...

Go about yelling like a newspaper hawker "EXTRA! EXTRA! READ ALL ABOUT IT! MILLION MOM MARCH MOTHER SENTENCED TO TEN YEARS TO LIFE FOR VIGILANTE SHOOTING! READ ALL ABOUT IT!" while holding the article aloft. Give one to anyone who wants one and I'm sure the Mindless Meandering Minions will definitely want a few.

If they deny that she was a member, hit them with another handout of the other 1-24-01 Washington Post story and highlight the paragraphs that state:
In the months after her son's death, Graham became active in Mothers on the Move Spiritually, a Prince George's County group that helped organize the Million Mom March last year against gun violence. Graham spoke out at the march and helped memorialize the dead.

Two months later, she was arrested in the shooting of Smith. Upon her arrest, police seized two guns from her nightstand and two more from elsewhere in her house.

Still, the women from Million Moms are backing her at her trial. The group's president, Bernadette Trowell, has come to court to show her support, even though Trowell cannot sit in the courtroom because she may be called as a witness.
Click to expand...

The 6-27-01 articles are entitled "Mother Sentenced in Revenge Shooting Woman Confronted Wrong Man in Son's Death, Left Him Paralyzed" and "Mother Gets 10 Years to Life For Trying to Take Revenge"

A february 2, 2001 articles entitled "Mother Guilty in Shooting D.C. Attack Called Misguided Revenge" and "Mother Convicted in Shooting Attack Called Act of Misguided Revenge for Son's Death"

The January 24, 2001 articles were entitled "Mother Goes on TrialIn Ambush Shooting Bid to Avenge Slain Son Alleged in D.C." and "Woman Goes on Trial In Ambush Shooting Bid to Avenge Slain Son Is Alleged"

The July 22, 2000 article was entitled "Mother in Revenge Shooting Kept in Jail Judge, in Denying Bail, Cites Guns Found in Home of Capitol Heights Woman"

July 15, 2000 "Friends Insist Slain Youth's Mother Didn't Avenge Death"

You may be able to go to your local library and view microfilm of the newspaper or you may be able to access the microfilm through inter-library loan.
 
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