At last night's CCRN meeting, I announced that I am -- with help, hopefully including your help -- going to be running a Personal Protection Act birthday party celebration this year.

With three years of the PPA under our belts, it's time to party . . .

It's going to be organized on the Forum, with at least one organizational meeting in the comiing weeks.

It will be around two months from now; further details after I've booked the appropriate venue (to avoid competitive booking from the Usual Hysterical Suspects...)

Instructions on how to sign up later today or tomorrow...

Sounds like a plan!

What's the theme?

3 years and light rail has killed or injured 500% more people than the PPA?

Naw, the MCPPA hasn't killed a single person.

Nah. I want to go with something more positive. "We did it for the children," maybe, if I can get enough people to both agree to show up, and bring the kids.

Still a fair amount of preplanning to do. I'd like to leverage CCRN's visibility (and checking account, to cover the expenses), for example. Got to get a go-ahead from Joe for that. And I think we need a pre-rally proctor meeting this time, with a couple of extras.

For those interested in working the rally, let me know, either here or via email/PM -- I'm going to open up a private topic for it shortly.

That's pretty good. How about:

"We care more than you do"

Something like this, but a little more cosmopolitan.
I want this to be something comfortable for pro-self-defense folks of all political persuasions. Self-defense isn't just for conservatives.

Gotta love Oleg Volk's pictures!!

"We did it for the children.", is a bit hokey to me. I mean I did it for my family sure, but the whole altruistic Kid reasoning seems a bit sugery sweet. I think maybe something like Happy Birthday MPPA. 80,000 (or whatever the number is), Families Safer now then 3 years ago.

I also don't really think positioning this rally with Children is a good idea. The anti-s will try to show us as recklessly putting our kids in harms way. You have to rememer, to an anti, a gun can just go off whenever for no reason. In their thinking, it would be like putting a long tailed cat in a room full of rocking chairs.

Finally AD's do happen. Can you think of the publicity if we got together and an AD occurred? Particularly around a large group of children?
Lastly my children are young and were in no way involved in my decision to get a permit to carry a concealed handgun. As a matter of fact my kids don't know that I carry, and I don't want my kids to know that I carry a gun. When they get older or they happen to notice I am carrying, I will have to have a talk with them. But until then they are on a need to know basis and they don't need to know. (BTW my kids know I have guns, what to do when they see one, and when the day comes that I feel they are old enough and mature enough, will be taught how to handle them safely.)

I understand if I am in the minority here, but a big old family get together to celebrate the MPPA? I would probably be there, but the family will be at home.
My 2 Cents,
Mike

Hokey? Sure. That's kind of the point. The other side has colonized the "do it for the children" meme; I mean to start an insurgency to evict the invaders.

(Afterthought: and if I don't bring my girls, they'll complain. They think that gun rights activism is fun, and they're more than a little used to being around people who carry. Matter of fact, one of my favorite tests for how well I'm concealing is if my daughters are only guessing where I'm carrying.)

As to an AD, you bet it would be a bad thing if that happens. So let's be sure it doesn't happen. (And there's at least four other security concerns I've got -- it's something I went over with the Capitol Security folks and the proctors last time.)

The stereotype of permit holders is middle-aged, soft, conservative straight white guys. There's nothing wrong, (he said, looking in the mirror) at being one of those -- but it's important to get out the reality that people who care about the personal safety of themselves and their families come from all ages, physical conditions, races, sexes, sexual orientations, whatever...

and, orthogonally, that the self-defense movement is open to everybody. The movement is just, rumors to the contrary, for folks who listen to "both kinds of music, country AND western."

I have a cake idea:

Why not "We did it for the kids" It has worked for Hilary Klinton throughout her career, in fact it has been her MO from day one.
Relate whatever radical idea you come up with, with kids and hype the snot out of the kids angle.

My agenda is "MY" agenda. I won't bring kids into it to make a point. I understand peoples frustrations, but I won't and never will use children as a showpiece for strengthening my arguement. Others are free to do so as they wish, free country and all, I just think if you want to distance yourself from people like Hilary Clinton and the like, you don't act like them.
Mike

Now I see this a showing the children that you can make a difference. But my kids love to shoot. I stop short of dressing them up in "Vote for XXXXXX" but I won't do that either, as none of the family is looking for work as a billboard.

If this was in the afternoon of "take your kids to work day" I'd be there with them.

Mostly-

I don't think we can afford to be "too proud to fight" a P.R. war that we need to win.

That said, since this is a public board, let's not hash out too many strategic details out here in the open. Why give the other side a chance to prepare to counter?