Posted 01 September 2011 - 05:55 PM
I, and everyone I have talked to who attended since, felt we had a very successful Town Hall meeting last night. There were 75-80 people in attendance. WVON talk show host Cliff Kelly not only did an excellent job as the MC of the program, but invited myself and Shawn Gowder (VP of the Chicago Firearms Safety Association) to be guests on his show from 4:00 until 5:00 pm to help us promote the meeting. Cliff's producer Michael Perry also assisted us with promoting the event by sending out some last minute press statements. As a result of his efforts, there were representatives from the Crusader or Citizen (I can't remember witch) and the Chicago Defender News papers. While all of the speakers did a very good job, Ms. Lori Meriweather who represented the Second Amendment Sisters did a truly fantastic job especially in light of the fact that this was her first time speaking in public. She pulled out her Illinois and US Constitution and very clearly defined what the terms Militia, infringed and several other terms that politicians like to use to confuse people with, means. Rhonda Ezell, the person responsible for successfully challenging the ban on Chicago did a very good job as well.
The only real problem we had last night was that the wifi did not work in the room we rented so we were not able to show a number of video clips (Mary Shepherd, Dr. Suzanna Hupp and 3 clips of actual self defense shootings) that we intended to show.
The only anti-gun person in the entire building was State Representative Marlow Covin. Although most participants were happy that at least 1 (of the 17 Black) State Reps. that I invited actually showed up, most found his position extremely disingenuous. On the one hand he claimed that he was not against concealed carry but on the other hand he said he had a problem with HB 148. When asked what his problem was with HB-148 he said it didn't have a provision for gun registration or gun locks!!! The audience jumped on him like white on rice. Most were as respectful as they could be under the circumstances, but several just called him a flat out Uncle Tom. I think that he was genuinely shocked that he was the ONLY person in the room who opposed the bill. Overall, it was a very successful event.
Nobody ever wished they had a smaller gun, with fewer bullets, in a gunfight.... Author unknown.