An estimated 20,000 pro-gun enthusiasts braved cold weather and a national media blackout on Saturday to support their rights to own guns, according to the Daily Mail, a British tabloid. This was a true grass-roots movement, called Guns Across America, that began, according to the tabloid, when Eric Reed, an airline captain in Houston, decided that the threats to the Second Amendment coming from the Obama administration demanded a response. He started a group on Facebook called “More Gun Control = More Crime,” which as of this writing has more than 19,000 “likes,” and most of them kept their promise to show up at state capitols.
What he wanted to do was to send “a very, very strong message to Congress and to our president that we the people are against any more gun control.” He added,
I realized that I’m part of the problem. It takes somebody to stand up and say, ‘Hey, we’re not going to accept this. We’re against it.’
We want Americans who feel the same way to come out. We want to stand up, be united and get our point across.
To have so many of them show up at state capitols on Saturday far exceeded his initial expectations. Said Reed,
What’s uplifting and encouraging is the amount of support we’re getting from Americans who are against any more gun control and who are trying to help save our Second Amendment.
There’s definitely a lot more out there than I imagined when I started this.
Several thousand showed up in Denver, Colorado, gathering at “high noon” on Saturday to protest the Obama administration’s threats to limit citizens’ rights under the Second Amendment. 1,000 showed up in Hartford, Connecticut, while an estimated 2,000 supporters protested in Albany, New York. Five hundred arrived at noon in Nashville, Tennessee, while another 500 rallied in St. Paul, Minnesota. In all there were rallies in 49 states, with many citizens carrying signs.
Some of the signs were direct and to the point:
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Photo of activists gathered outside the Utah State Capitol in Salt Lake City Jan. 19: AP Images
