I am employed by an agency that does canvassing for campaigns all over the west coast, most of which are left wing. Our most recent assignment is door-to-door petition work in Reno and Sparks in order to get an effect on the 2016 ballot that, if passed, would require background checks for unlicensed gun sales. My agency has brought in ~200 people on buses from Seattle, Portland, and Tacoma to try to push this through before the deadline on Wednesday.
Although I am unfamiliar with the Reno area, I came here expecting a high amount of opposition in the form of slammed doors and rude refusals. Nevada is a red state and even in uber-liberal Washington this is really just part of the job. What I found strange was the fact that they couldn't just pay people in Reno to do this work. Why was our agency paying to bring people in from Washington and Oregon, 15-12 hours away?
Last night, during a 3-9pm shift, some things happened to my co-workers that have made me think that we were brought in because locals KNOW BETTER than to do liberal canvassing here. One woman was assaulted and mugged[1] right after the sun went down in Sparks. This was only a couple of blocks from where my friend and roommate was working. The cops picked my friend up and told him to leave because they believed a group of people were riding around in a truck looking for canvassers to beat up. At least five of my co-workers were verbally assaulted or followed at night. One woman had a shotgun pulled on her at a door and was then followed by the gun-owner, who had the gun with him in his car. A black co-worker had a pistol pulled on him and put to his head at a door. I have been kicked out of neighborhoods by homeowners, mostly gated communities, screamed at, told to **** off, and have been greeted by men behind doors holding knives defensively.
I understand that no one likes to hear their doorbell ring in the middle of dinner, but we are only doing our jobs. We are not soliciting as we are not selling anything. Everything we are doing is perfectly legal within our constitutional right to free speech.
I opted out of the pm shift tonight because I legitimately fear for my safety and many others have done the same. Most of our problems came up when we started working in Sparks and, although the agency has claimed they are not sending people there anymore, I know of four people who had turf in that area this morning. Locals - what neighborhoods are considered unsafe here in Reno and Sparks? Where would you not want to find yourself alone with a gun control petition after dark? We need your help to protect ourselves while we continue to just do our jobs here. I would hate to see another person threatened or assaulted before I leave.
