Rally in Austin on 1/19

[SF18C]

I was there as well and experienced a mixture of emotions. I was proud to be there with my wife and son yet terribly disappointed at the turnout for a state of this size. We should have easily had 50-100 thousand people there supporting gun rights. Like I stated mixed emotions about the rally.

That is part of the problem, the wife really wanted to go (as did I) but its a 5 hour drive to Austin from here (yes we live in Texas)!

[Right2Carry]

I was there as well and experienced a mixture of emotions. I was proud to be there with my wife and son yet terribly disappointed at the turnout for a state of this size. We should have easily had 50-100 thousand people there supporting gun rights. Like I stated mixed emotions about the rally.

That is part of the problem, the wife really wanted to go (as did I) but its a 5 hour drive to Austin from here (yes we live in Texas)!

We were 3.5 hours away but we drove down friday and spent the night. I am not begrudging anyone for not showing up, I just thought there would be more.

[doc540]

Patriots young and old


First to arrive and flying the colors


Crowd begins to gather


Capitol adornment


Overcome during the National Anthem

[baldeagle]

Looks like the rally was a success all over the country. http://www.theblaze.com/stories/2013/01 ... -pictures/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false; Not that you'd know it watching TV....

[Bennies]

I think overall the rally went really well! We had some pretty good numbers and everyone seemed to put on a good representation of the second amendment (aside from a few info war people). Speakers were pretty good I thought too!

It was great getting to meet some of you forum members! Sorry I couldn't hang out and chat a little longer.

It was great to meet you and thanks for all your hard work.

I was the guy from Pflugerville.

You take care and let me know if I can help in the future.

Ohh yes I remember you well sir. It was great meeting you!

[Bennies]

I think overall the rally went really well! We had some pretty good numbers and everyone seemed to put on a good representation of the second amendment (aside from a few info war people). Speakers were pretty good I thought too!

It was great getting to meet some of you forum members! Sorry I couldn't hang out and chat a little longer.

Do you know what the total number of people that signed the petition that was going around?

It was difficult to hear everything from the back, the loud speakers were not placed high enough in the air to project to the back with all the people - my only negative complaint/comment about the rally.

I was glad to see all the people that showed up - reminds me of the start of the Tea Party rally's in 2009

I will should find out the number. I was curious too. I know my clip board was completely full and I had a few people sign outside the boxes. I do not know what the other petitions looked like turned in but towards the end 9 out of 10 I asked had already signed the petition.

[VMI77]

I was in Austin yesterday.

Everyone I talked to was very passionate, one of the speakers even made a remark about how polite we are to each other. Tru dat!

I made it a point to talk to a few of the LEO's, they couldn't have been nicer, I even went inside the Capital using the "CHL" lane, and I just wonder why we can't do something like that at major airport instead of the cluster we're doing now. Took a few pictures, had lunch at the Texas Chili Parlor, whose menu hasn't changed in at least 30 years!

But I'm concerned. Ok, granted, there wasn't a lot of notice, and maybe there wasn't an awful lot of publicity. It's a little difficult to estimate crowd size, a few of the amateur guessers put it at maybe in the neighborhood of 1000-1500. If I were a betting man, I'd say the over/under line would be in that range. Taking that at face value, it would put our turnout at roughly 1/10 of the number of people who showed up for the college basketball game (UT/KU) going on only a few short blocks away. Oh, and not to bash the state college or anything but they are in the middle of a losing season, and have yet to win a conference game: yet defenders of the second amendment can only muster maybe 10% of the attendees of a crappy basketball game. Taking that math one step further, we drew .00082% of Metro Austin and .00005769% of the state of Texas. I sadly fear we're losing it, and it's only a matter of time.

[ Image ]
[ Image ]

There were lots of great signs at all the rally's I've seen photos for.

As far as the turnout goes, and the press coverage.....I think the nationwide rally's are unprecedented in at least the past several decades. I can't remember anything like this. I don't think it matters much that the MSM didn't cover it....the politicians know it happened, and they know it is unprecedented. For law abiding middle class people to turn out like this in protest for gun rights, nationwide, even in these numbers is unprecedented. It's not a bunch of political activists and professional protestors, but working middle class Americans and their families. They have to know that out of a group like this, the number who can and will show up at such a protest is only a tiny fraction of those who hold the same beliefs.

[fickman]

I had a great time at the rally. I carried two concealed firearms to mark the occasion.

A million thanks to GeekwaGun for getting up earlier than everybody else in our party, picking us all up (4 in the vehicle), and driving the round trip. (That was one well-protected SUV. Carjackers beware!)

I agree with several other observations and will add some of my own:
- We are a friendly, polite group. This means we weren't loud and raucous. . . which is good and bad. The crowd was larger than reported in the news, but probably seemed smaller because everything was orderly, kids were safe, and nobody was in a fit of rage.

- Texas is a big state and we didn't have a lot of notice or advertising beyond gun forums and social media. I met a family that drove down from Wichita Falls. I met a couple that drove in from El Paso. We were from Fort Worth. It was a good turnout considering all of these factors and the fact that we might've lost a few dozen to the Dallas rally.

- The weather couldn't have been nicer for a rally like this.

- The speakers were great, especially the land commissioner. He made some great points about the consequences of freedom. . . there are negative results of every single one of the Amendments in the Bill of Rights.

- The mood was overall respectful. There was a prayer, the pledge of allegiance to both the American and Texas flags, we sang the Star-Spangled Banner, etc. The infowars guys were a little aggressive, open carry was well represented, and there seemed to be some definite anti-Federal contingents in the crowd. They asked the giant Texas flag with "INDEPENDENT" written on it to go to the front, but they didn't realize that when somebody tried to start a "U-S-A" chant, that guy had been countering with "R-O-T" (Republic of Texas). I'm as pro-Texas as you can get, but in these types of events, I don't want the reporters to be able to cast us an unpatriotic or anti-American.

- I was almost interviewed by a Japanese television crew, but they wanted me to remove my sunglasses and I'm not supposed to in bright sunlight like that. It could take 45 minutes for my vision to recover to low light (going inside or putting my glasses back on). Instead, they interviewed a Vietnam vet near me who was very well spoken - although he did add one line about Obama's imperialist agenda that the Japanese may not relate to very well.

- Using the CHL line to get into the capitol building was AWESOME! The DPS trooper was jovial and in a great mood. The line I got to skip was very long. I'll trade the fact that I was essentially "outed" to those people in the other line for the fact that they got to see a CHLer enter the capital as a "no big deal" non-event while they were scrutinized in a metal detector.

- At one point, I declared the north lawn of the capital to be the safest place in Texas. We had one heckler about 30 minutes before the event started, a young male on a bicycle drove by screaming "people with guns kill people" and other silly phrases. We mostly laughed. Nobody got enraged. He didn't slow down. Then somebody behind me pointed out a great observation: he demonstrated in his actions that he didn't feel we were as threatening as he accused us of being with his mouth, or he wouldn't have confronted 1,000+ gun owners on a public street. If he thought we were loose canons, he would've fled the city on the day we came to town.

- Guero's Taco Bar on South Congress was a perfect way to "fill up" before the journey home. We got to practice carrying in a VERY crowded venue where we were shuffling sideways and excusing ourselves past the masses as we waited for out table. Great recommendation, Pucker!

- The Czech Stop in West worked its way into our plan on the way home. . . we got gasoline, a nice snack, and most of us grabbed enough kolaches for breakfast on Sunday.

- I got to meet about a dozen or so TexasCHLforum folks. . . Bennies, SlowPoke, OilField (sp?), and others I don't remember off the top of my head. Some were admitted lurkers. (j/k!)

I'll upload some pictures when I get a chance.

[74novaman]

We had one heckler about 30 minutes before the event started, a young male on a bicycle drove by screaming "people with guns kill people" and other silly phrases. We mostly laughed. Nobody got enraged. He didn't slow down. Then somebody behind me pointed out a great observation: he demonstrated in his actions that he didn't feel we were as threatening as he accused us of being with his mouth, or he wouldn't have confronted 1,000+ gun owners on a public street. If he thought we were loose canons, he would've fled the city on the day we came to town.

That was me.

Thanks for sharing your thoughts on the event. It was definitely the safest place in Austin that day.

The thing I haven't seen mentioned much is the DPS presence. There were very few cops there in relation to the crowd size, and all of them were very polite and professional. I appreciated their conduct, and caught some of them nodding in agreement with more than a few of the speakers.

[magillapd]

I had to work or I'd have made the drive. I think one reason not as many showed up as did New York is because NY is under attack at their state level and Texas isn't.

Would be better I think to have smaller more localized rallies, say in major cities or metro areas. Some may be hard pressed to drive to Austin, but could make it to El Paso, Amarillo, Lubbock, etc...

Either way, keep up the good fight. I'm spreading word about gun rights and encourging those who feel strongly to join the NRA and their local states gun rights group.

I think there should be rallies in all cities who's mayor is a member of Mayors against illegal guns http://www.mayorsagainstillegalguns.org ... home.shtml

Protest them in their cities and support the neighboring cities who are not a part of this.

Only city around me is Hurst, TX and I have made it a point to not shop in that city unless it's an absolute emergency.

[A-R]

Overcome during the National Anthem
[ Image ]

Doc, this photo is just stellar. Gets to me every time I open this thread.

[doc540]

Overcome during the National Anthem
[ Image ]

Doc, this photo is just stellar. Gets to me every time I open this thread.

I agree.

It's been republished all over the world by now. (I didn't take it, btw)

That's MrsDoc back there with our Gadsden banner.

What does a Texas hotel nightstand look like?

Colts'n'Kahrs (and a little John Boyd homework)

[apostate]

It looks like you had a good turnout. I wanted to go but not enough to miss the first day of class, so I wore a Gunsite shirt to school as penance.

[Bennies]

Ok, official word from Eric is that he lost count around 1200 signatures on the petition. So we know there was at least 1200 people at the rally.

Stay tuned for more info on upcoming call to action. This one will be more convenient and have much more time to be organized about.

[jmra]

Ok, official word from Eric is that he lost count around 1200 signatures on the petition. So we know there was at least 1200 people at the rally.

Stay tuned for more info on upcoming call to action. This one will be more convenient and have much more time to be organized about.

Look forward to the updates.