King George Tea Party
20 January 2020
Fellow Members of the King George TEA Party:
I am quite sure you have read the news about today’s Lobby Day in Richmond. I have received a couple of e-mails from folks that attended, or at least attempted to attend, and will relay them below. Hats off to Bob and Bob that tried to get there but got caught in the terrible traffic jam.
Governor Northam also sent out his summary… and I have a few comments about that… and then there are some links to articles about the event.
Reports from “the field”:
/*************************************/
/*************************************/
From: Mark
Date: January 20, 2020 at 3:20:02 PM EST
Subject: Gun Rally
On the way home now, here’s the iPhone version of what I saw:
The people were all extremely polite and well behaved. Mostly adults. 20-30% under 30 yrs old. The cops were great. I think they knew it was a false alarm. I talked to one State Patrol guy who told me there was a couple of minor issues, but that’s all. He said they have more problems at a UVa vs Va Tech football game.
As we were headed back to the buses, all the gun people were shaking hands with the cops and thanking them for their professionalism.
There were some dudes all dressed up with chest rigs, slung ARs and loaded down with extra mags marching around. I just shook my head. I know they were just trying to make a point, but I think they missed the point. Oh well.
When I mentioned the crowd couldn’t keep a chant going, a guy near me said “yeah, we’re not cut out for protests.” A lot of people, like me, took vacation to be there. We’re not like Antifa: We got jobs.
I think turnout was down for all the scaremongering. I was told by the cops they would limit those ‘inside the fence’ to 10,000 and it never got close to that. A couple of good pictures showed the crowd which was mostly outside the fence because so many were carrying.
Now, if we can just register enough of those people to vote and turn them out, we wouldn’t be in this mess. Oh yeah, and if Ed Gillespie’s campaign has bothered to look at Al Jolson’s yearbook before the election.
Mark
/*************************************/
/*************************************/
On Jan 20, 2020, at 6:18 PM, Bob wrote:
Jim,
As good as Marco's report was, mine is a flop.
Bob drove w/ me to Lobby Day. We left later in the morning because both of us were worried how long we could stand out in cold weather.
We never got to Lobby Day.
Everything was going OK until we got to I-95 and Arthur Ashe Blvd. We were headed to park at the Diamond. The right turn lane of I-95 was stopped. It wasn't moving. I thought the lane next to it also let you turn onto Arthur Ashe. As we got closer to the turn I saw just the right lane turned. Someone was kind to let me in. We jumped past more than half mile of cars sitting on I-95.
Then we took about 45 minutes to go a few hundred feet. Arthur Ashe was jam packed both ways. We could see the top of the Diamond and that all the cars on Arthur Ashe (both directions) seemed headed there.
Bob tried to call Marcos to get a status of what was happening at the rally site 3 miles away. We couldn't get through. Bob and I jointly decided there was too much risk to get closer with the gridlock we were seeing. So, sad to say, we returned home.
I didn't know this at the time, but this was posted on a gun forum:
The shuttle was supposed to run every 15 minutes. Perhaps the bus encountered the same gridlock we saw.
I am very glad the day went well overall. I do regret not being part of it.
Bob
/*************************************/
/*************************************/
The below is what Governor Northam sent out as his summary. I have taken the liberty to (calmly) make some comments in bold throughout.
/*************************************/
/*************************************/
Some overview reports about Lobby Day
Some reports that, by God, Lobby Day was entirely without violence
A report of what happened when someone tried to stir things up
Some reports of local law enforcement commenting on the subject of usurping the Second Amendment
Some reports about the vigorous propaganda effort made to delegitimize the Second Amendment supporters
A report about what Second Amendment supporters are really like
A report that We The People Of Virginia have “top cover” regarding our support for the Second Amendment
As always, I welcome any questions or comments you may have.
James
King George TEA Party
King George, Virginia
james@kinggeorgeteaparty.com
https://www.kinggeorgeteaparty.com