Olympia, WA (1-19-14) — It was a cool grey Sunday typical of Western Washington’s winters, but it didn’t rain on the parade festooned crowd of 400-500 supporting Constitutional guarantees to bear arms or their WSP onlookers. The 2-hour rally was entirely civil, which might be expected from a crowd armed with every description and variety of open carry firearms. Some speakers were naturally more articulate than others. Despite all the firepower present, one couldn’t have found a calmer more secure atmosphere to air differences over an ongoing hotly debated topic: The 2nd Amendment guarantee for a free citizenry to bear arms to defend against ALL enemies, both foreign and domestic–not a collective right, mind you, but an individual right as enunciated not so long ago by our own U.S. Supreme Court when asked to consider the issue.
Perhaps the most articulate speaker pleaded with attendees to take the time to educate their neighbors, children, friends, and legislators in order to preserve a fundamental liberty interest held by all truly free people. The crowd was composed mostly of whites with a sprinkling of Hispanics and brown skinned people, but no blacks. Despite this disparity, there were babies, toddlers, children, teens, women, mothers, parents, grand-parents, senior citizens (a few in wheel chairs), bikers, veterans, the good, the bad, and the ugly–all passionately American willing to stand up and be counted for our inalienable rights even in the face of the most extreme hopliphobes. Yes, King Leonidas was there–at least in spirit.
The following photos speak louder than this keyboard. They have a story to tell. Are you listening?
KIRO News showed up with a pretty large video camera and tripod. The Honda pictured above had a young white male driver shouting profanities at the rally participants as he drove by with his window down. He didn’t pause/park as it appeared he didn’t want a dialog, but only to vent. The crowd remained unflapped and determined.
