Howdy, folks,

Sorry that I didn't get this out sooner, but here is my take on yesterday's counter-rally against the Many Misled Moms here in sunny San Diego. Bottom line: We sure threw a fat, wet blanket over their little love-fest, and did succeed in disrupting their gathering in a big way. Of course, the local liberal media worked overtime to render us invisible on San Diego "news" channels 7, 8 and 10, and also made a point of blatantly lying about both our numbers ("a handful") and theirs ("a thousand"), when the actuals were probably 250 vs. 350-400. Around 30 of us were sporting TRT-Shirts, and hardly any camo in sight.

These "news" people either can't count, or more likely, they're paid liars. Seems to be that way all over, isn't it? That's the only thing that dampened this whole event for me -- the media mis-treatment. It's scary, and we need to figure out what the hell to do about it. It's a problem. You talk straight to them, answer every question, go in front of the camera speaking with your beautiful kid in your arms, they act all nice and civil, and then nada. The media, once the watchdogs of government, are now all too often the boot-licking lapdogs.

Let me say right off that it was a great pleasure to work with the many good people who were there, as well as meet so many folks I knew only up that point via email. And we made a difference! The MMM people had _no_ idea that the opposition (us) would be there in such numbers. Our people showed up, had their own signs, bought every CA TRT-Shirt and ballcap we had (http://www.trt-ca.org/tshirt.html), brought chairs that we used for a while to commandeer the street in front of where we were set up (some MMMers tried blocking us off with their cars, no dice) -- all sorts of good examples of thinking on your feet. It was great! We just have to figure out a way to make money at this...

A request: If anyone reading this was there and took pictures of the event, I'd really appreciate it if you could scan them or send (or loan) me copies -- I'd like to get them on the CA TRT website. My brother took almost ten minutes of footage with my Hi8 camcorder which I already have, but getting that on the website I don't know about. Onward...

The main group organizers, myself included, arrived at the parking lot adjacent to the Education Center where the MMM was setting up around 11 AM, with the main event scheduled for 1-2 PM. We had the 2nd Amendment RV there, lots of extra signs courtesy of stalwart Bob Tracy, flyers, buttons, shirts, etc., etc. Right off the bat, as we're setting up our flags out front (a US and a Gadsden), some young dweeb bopped over and starting telling us "you can't park here -- we have a permit to the whole grounds and parking". We read the permit which said "grass areas only" right on it, and it was "Nope, sorry, buddy -- we have every right to park here", whereupon he stated "OK, well I'm gonna call the police". Well, I said "Go right ahead. I'm in immediate contact with the Sargeant running the detail for this show. You want his number?" Bugger! He was beat, knew it, and walked off, and I flashed him the peace sign. Kinda got the day off to a good start -- nyuk, nyuk nyuk. Truly, these folks don't care about fair one whit.

A bit later an SDPD car came up and I spoke to both officers, who where very cool. In fact, I'd have to say that the police were firmly on our side, and were more worried that the MMMers could do something silly, since they're the ones all whipped up emotionally. There were a group of about a half-dozen younger folks (I think they were PD) in orange "see me" vests working the street directly in front of the MMM area later, who were a lot quieter and grimmer, though. Trainees?

Being much better funded, the MMM had a "party mobile" setup, and a podium set up right in the center front entrance of the Ed Center. This location worked greatly to our advantage in that it focused them all in one spot, all facing the building, which allowed us to "wall them in" from behind, plus we had the sidewalk lined with people for 100 yards, so anyone driving by on the 6-lane street out front saw only us. The MMMers also had to walk right past us and through us to get to their location, which was lotsa fun. They simply did not expect our presence. D'oh!

I wanted our approach to mostly be pointing out that they were being misled by HCI, et al, and that they were being used for their good intentions. Not ever having helped organize anything like this before in my life, I should have told people that! So, of course, there were more than a few confrontations, but everything was verbal. Well, I did get the finger at least a dozen times, all from people driving by... We could have designated some folks to hand out the pro-RKBA materials we had brought along, too, but I didn't think of that until later, either.

We managed to constantly disrupt them throughout the event. One tactic that worked really well for us was having people along the roadside waving signs saying "HONK IF YOU LOVE FREEDOM!" and 'HONK IF YOU OWN A GUN!", which had car horns going on and off for the whole time. Many times cars would slow to see what was going on and make people behind them honk! Nyuk again!

Someone handed me the bullhorn (which wasn't a very loud one, unfortunately), which came in real handy to tell folks the old protest-rules 101: "Keep moving, don't bunch up -- let your signs be seen, let's move closer to the Many Misled Moms". Then I ambled down to where the MMM'ers were and stood with our group behind the MMMers, and after listening to their "12 kids a day" BS, etc., I started yelling retorts on the bullhorn like "YOU ARE BEING MISLED! SHE IS LYING TO YOU! 12 KIDS A DAY IS A LIE! DO YOU CONSIDER A NINETEEN YEAR-OLD GANGBANGER A 'CHILD'? SHE DOES! YOUR GOOD INTENTIONS ARE BEING USED! DON'T SACRIFICE YOUR CHILDREN'S FREEDOM FOR FALSE PROMISES OF SAFETY! You get the idea. That got people visibly, er, shall we say, annoyed... Add to that the fact that every time one of their speakers said something that had the MMMers cheering, our crowd was immediately booing loudly. It was great!

After their speakers pooped out just after 2 PM, the MMMers immediately dispersed; in fact, most of them appeared to just show up for the choir-preaching, and then left pronto, again, having to walk right past us all the way. It's interesting that most folks have noted the dearth of American Flags in the MMM group, and how common they were on our side; we saw that, too. And their crowd, like ours, was mostly male. And Travis McGee is right -- those "honorary mom" stickers on the guys were lame-ola.

So there you have it. Next time it will be harder to surprise them, I imagine, but if we can get 400-500 people out there next time, that's OK. We need to pick our next target and move on it, even becoming pro-active about where next to meet. As I told all our people, this is only the beginning. And as I told all the "news" reporters, "you'll be seeing us again".

Yours in Liberty,

Joe Brower
CA TRT guy