Those attending the “Second Amendment March” gathered on the grounds of the Washington Monument, while those going to the “Restore the Constitution” rally first met at Ft. Hunt National Park in Virginia and traveled in convoys to the banks of the Potomac River, about a mile from the National Mall, so they could “step up to the edge” of D.C. with their openly carried handguns and military-grade rifles.
The day the armed demonstrators chose is, indeed, unusual: It marks the 15th anniversary of the bombing of the federal building in Oklahoma City in 1995 and the government’s final confrontation in 1995 with the Branch Davidian cult members in Waco, Texas.
It is also the date is the anniversary of the 1775 battles at Lexington and Concord that began the Revolutionary War.
The rallies, with militia movement leaders as featured speakers, drew harsh criticism here. Many consider it an alarming escalation of paranoia and anger in the age of President Obama.
“What I think is important to note is that many of the speakers have really threatened violence, and it’s a real threat to the rule of law,” Josh Horwitz, executive director of the Coalition to Stop Gun Violence, told reporters about the armed rally.
“They are calling health care and taxes that have been duly enacted by a democratically elected Congress tyrannical, and they feel they have a right to confront that individually.”
Those attending the “Restore the Constitution” rally certainly gave Obama no credit for signing the law that permits them to bring their guns to the banks of the Potomac River. Nor are they comforted by a broad expansion of gun rights in several states since his election.
Daniel Almond, 31, a three-tour veteran of Iraq, told reporters he organized the rally because he’s upset about health care reform, climate control, bank bailouts, drug laws “and what he sees as President Obama’s insistence on and the Democratic Congress’s capitulation to a ‘totalitarian socialism’ that tramples individual rights.”
His “Restore the Constitution” rally has caused alarm in the online world where gun-rights advocates plan, recruit and discuss strategy.
Meanwhile, the “open-carry” rallies have been taking place across the country. Hundreds gathered in New Mexico, Ohio and Michigan last week, and other rallies that took place in several states on Monday.
Those behind the scenes organizing the rallies, include several champions of the militia movement. These include Mike Vanderboegh, who advocated throwing bricks through the windows of Democrats who voted for the health-care bill; Tom Fernandez, who has established a nationwide call-center to mobilize an armed resistance to any government order to seize firearms; and former Arizona sheriff Richard Mack, who refused to enforce the Brady law and then won a Supreme Court verdict that weakened its background-check provisions.
Their strategies helped lead to gun-rights victories such as the passage of laws last year to allow people to carry guns in national parks, and the so-called Amtrak bill, which will make it legal to travel with guns on trains, as checked baggage, by December.
A new poll may explain some of their dissent. Public confidence in government is at one of the lowest points in a half century. A new survey from the Pew Research Center says 8 in 10 Americans say they don’t trust the federal government and have little faith it can solve America’s ills.
The poll identified a combination of factors that contributed to the electorate’s hostility: the recession that President Barack Obama inherited from President George W. Bush; a dispirited public; and anger with Congress and politicians of all political leanings.
