In a sign that he's aggressively reaching out to Millennials and Silicon Valley, GOP Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky - considered a potential White House contender in 2016 - will be the keynote speaker at a gathering of "conservatarian" tech insiders this weekend in San Francisco.
So this is the weekend of reactionary conferencing for both the digital and analog right-wing. Rand Paul will be speaking in
Ryan Chamberlain's hometown Saturday 19 July at Noon Pacific Time at
Reboot as in Reboot Congress, as though repeal and reset weren't enough for the conservative movement(s) and its own digital infowarriors. On the analog side of the meme of Liberty(sic), open carry exhibitionists will display their hardware in places like Lansing Michigan this weekend.
Aaron Ginn, 26, and Garrett Johnson, 29, both work full time at tech startups. Ginn worked for several months on Mitt Romney's presidential campaign. In their spare time, Ginn and Johnson run Lincoln Labs, dedicated solely to connecting conservative and libertarian technologists, with an emphasis on Silicon Valley. It's their attempt to catch Democrats in the new culture war: The battle to cultivate and build a network of young, tech-savvy digital natives who may be open to working for conservative or libertarian causes or candidates.
Lincoln Labs will host a three-day conference in San Francisco from July 18 to July 20. Johnson said the conference, called Reboot, will be most like Netroots, because it is " focused on the decision-makers, thought leaders and builders."
Last weekend featured the usual firearms fetishism on parade with more planned for this weekend in a month of armed pride (see NRA campaign of nearly a decade ago unrelated to the Pink Pistols), except that now it's defending the country from an invasion of unarmed Central American teenagers. One can only wonder when it will converge further as was proposed with
automated border machine guns except for the US border. All the Reboot folks need to do is run their convention at Las Vegas during the annual
SHOT show for the firearms industry, and handle the web campaign for the
Cliven Bundy Ranch.
Nothing conveys a sense of clear displeasure with the actions of a rogue government than showing up to protest their actions with firearms:
More than 50 people from across Michigan turned out to protest the possibility that a Vassar facility could house Central American children and teens who have fled into the country.
The group, led by Michiganders for Immigration Control and Enforcement organizer Tamyra Murray, marched a little more than a mile, from Vassar City Hall to Wolverine Human Services’ Pioneer Work and Learn Center.
Some carried AR-15 rifles and handguns, while others carried Gadsden “Don’t Tread on Me” flags, American flags and Rochester resident Jeff McQueen’s “second American revolution” flags, designed from Betsy Ross’ flag with a Roman Numeral II in the middle.
“We’re not against kids,” Murray said, speaking to media before the march started. “We have sympathy for the kids being used and exploited by the feds.”
I can’t say that I’m all that surprised to see a convergence of open carry with other political messaging, though I’m sure that the radical anti-gun left is going to have a hissy fit. Ladd Everitt and the CSGV are sure to scream that these lawful protesters are “insurrectionists” for daring to display their disdain for the illegal alien invasion that many Americans feel was orchestrated by the Obama Administration.
Unfortunately even without such convergence, we do live in a dangerous society where events coincide, and despite the obvious message was this drive-by shooting about the crime or about the messenger:
States that do not have laws that allow unpermitted open carry of firearms are uncomplicated on the issue of how they communicate a certain meaning. In the following example, annoyance or alarm are actually clear messages when one open carries any firearm regardless of the possession of a warrant permitting their public display. Police and citizen situational awareness is instantly heightened in the public sphere when any firearm or things resembling them are displayed, and of course tragedies are legion in terms of police killing unarmed citizens as well as all those unintended gunFail shootings. Here is an example of someone who doesn't seem to understand the reason for having a
CCW with no unpermitted firearms open carry in their state.
I have on several occasions heard the argument that people who see individuals wearing a badge next to their holstered exposed firearm don't cause alarm.
Not wanting to create any annoyance or alarm, I took the time to think about what I could do to prevent people from fearing my firearm.
The problem in my opinion seems to be that we carry our permits out of site(sic), ( in our wallets or purse) where the public can't see that we are legal to Carry Pistols and Revolvers.
So.... I have placed my order and will be obtaining my PERMIT HOLDER "BADGE" to mitigate any potential annoyance or alarm on the part of those around me when I am legally carrying my exposed holstered firearm.
The above is from the opencarry forum.
Also, did a recent open carry protester get harassed by police or did his demonstration go too far? The activist, Nick Somberg. recorded the incident on his cell phone and posted it (see below). Nick joins us along with Bill Kucyk, who owns Action Impact Gun Range and Firearms Store, who says Nick may have actually hurt his cause with the protest.
Hard to say whether this last example went too far from a Darwinian perspective.