No one should have expected the rally to suddenly fix things. There is a political process that has to be followed. Keep the pressure on the Committees and the politicians that can afford to respond to our pressure instead of Northam's and vote our way when it counts. There is no genie's wish solution to these things. It is instead going to take real work to capitalize on the momentum from Jan 20.
One purpose of the rally is to show what kind of people own guns.
Let us understand why the rank-and-file support gun control laws.
Let us understand their perspective.
They live very sheltered lives.
They hear stories of people mugged in the streets by street thugs.
They hear stories of children gunned down in the street by gangs.
As Marco Rubio pointed out, gun control has been advertised as a method of keeping handguns out of the possession of the gangbanger or the street thug doing these muggings and shootings. They are afraid that the street thugs and gangbangers might rob or kill their kids, so they want to get the assault rifles off the street. They want to reduce the proliferation of guns in society.
They want warrantless searches of public housing projects where much of the crime and gun violence comes from.
They want the police to just stop and frisk street thugs and gangbangers on a hunch.
But like almost all people, they do not understand the perspective of others who do not share their lived experiences.
They do not understand the perspective of the young black man who has to work nights in high-crime, inner city neighborhoods to support his family.
They do not understand why he needs to carry an unregistered handgun for protection because the police refuse to protect him.
They do not understand that the reason he can not get a permit nor register his handgun is because, despite meeting all statutory criteria for a handgun permit, the police do not believe having to work late nights in crime-ridden, inner-city neighborhoods to be “good cause” to issue a permit.
They do not understand his fear, on top of being accosted by a street thug or getting caught in a shootout by gangbangers, of being caught with an unregistered handgun by the police, of being treated just like the street thugs and gangbangers he wants to protect himself and his family from, of being incarcerated for possession, of being separated from his family, and suffering from the disabilities felons experience after release from custody.
But with this rally, the rank-and-file can no longer have the illusion that only street thugs and gangbangers want guns.