Neplusultra
Regular Member
imported post
A little long but a fun story for me at least, first time I've had something like this happen to me while OCing.
I attended Rick Boucher's Townhall meeting in Dublin, VA (New River Community College) this morning on the health care issue. Got there about a half hour early, lucky I did, it was packed. I saw an old friend of mine but I was looking for Ken Stanton who is president of the SCCC for VA Tech. I walked all over looking for him, OCing of course. Couldn't find him so I sat with my friend.
A pro everything socialized medicine lady was sitting to my left towards the aisle along the wall, my weak side. We had a pretty nice conversation, a little strident, a little moonbatty, but she had a few good points I had not considered prior. She knew I held different views so I thought it was a great example of civility :^). I didn't get her name though, more on this later.
There was one particularly obnoxious disruptor that stood in the aisle along the wall near where we were seated. Finally my friend said he had to say something to this guy, I said I'd go with him. Not sure if it was the gun or just two people getting in his face but he quieted down significantly :^). There were plenty of "comments" made sporadically by everyone else none the less. Fairly raucous but over all a rather civil meeting considering.
When we stood up to exit the row of seats to confront the disruptor my strong side was away from the lady. When we came back my .45 was probably 12 inches from her face at eye level :^). She left immediately thereafter, which is why I didn't get her name.
I of course have a great idea that would solve the entire health care issue without any government program and was hoping to get called on to speak :^). I figured the best place to be was standing in the aisle so I moved there. Within ten minutes or so a Pulaski County Sheriffs detective approached me and using his best and rather convincing command voice *asked* me to step outside so we could talk..... Ok, voice recorder on.
Attached is what happened after we got into the hall just outside the auditorium. Now if you didn't know I'm under a felony indictment (Code of VA 18.2-85) and one of the few bail conditions that I am under is to "keep the peace" :^). So this little interaction could be significant in that I might be in jail until trial in the end of October... Doubt it, but you never know. So I was a little nervous.
The first minute or so is the detective (thick southern draw) using his best command voice telling me to take it (the gun) off the property and to follow him outside, with a very strong emotional (but non-verbal) aspect implying if I didn't follow him things were going to be going really bad for me. A complete bluff, but still fear instilling to resist. I mean, I could be wrong, right? But he really wasn't answering my question about "Administrative Rules" verses "Law" and such so every few steps I'd ask him again. Finally calling his bluff at 0:53. The detective discerning that *I'm* not bluffing then addresses the college administrator (CA) at 0:58 and you hear the CA join in the discussion (he's the one with the New York area accent asking "Why do you need it?"). The long pause takes place while the CA is standing there and the detective is on his cell phone talking to who knows who. I imagine it was his supervisor saying the gig was up and there was nothing more they could do to "trick" me into compliance without actually violating my rights.
Also by this time a guy from the 2ndtuesdayconstitutiongroup.com is there silently video taping along with the friend I had been sitting with. Everyone knew I was recording the interaction as I was holding my voice recorder up like you would a microphone. The guy video taping (Phil), whom I had not met before, asks if I'm being harassed at 1:52. The conversation then delves into issues of guns on campus and would a gun have prevented the Tech massacre, etc, etc. The whole confrontation then falls apart and everyone goes their separate way.
I said "Thank you Sir" to the detective and "Y'all have a good day" to the CA (should have said, "We do things different here in the South", but I didn't). I then went back into the auditorium and was not bothered the rest of the meeting. It was amazing and a little upseting to have such emotional pressure put on me when I think the detective knew all along there was nothing he could do. Perhaps he did need to phone in for instructions, but I can't believe this was not gone over earlier with all LEOs who were there today since weapons at townhall meetings has so much been in the news as of late.
I did stick around afterward, never having been called on to speak. I was the last person Mr. Boucher spoke with that day, we walked together to his car. I'm not sure if he was uneasy knowing I had a gun, he didn't seem like he was. He was sending signals that he wanted to leave but that could just be that he needed to leave. He gave me his card writing down a different address and said he'd read a short synopsis of my proposal if I sent it to that address. It's a good proposal, it'll fix almost everything :^)!
A little long but a fun story for me at least, first time I've had something like this happen to me while OCing.
I attended Rick Boucher's Townhall meeting in Dublin, VA (New River Community College) this morning on the health care issue. Got there about a half hour early, lucky I did, it was packed. I saw an old friend of mine but I was looking for Ken Stanton who is president of the SCCC for VA Tech. I walked all over looking for him, OCing of course. Couldn't find him so I sat with my friend.
A pro everything socialized medicine lady was sitting to my left towards the aisle along the wall, my weak side. We had a pretty nice conversation, a little strident, a little moonbatty, but she had a few good points I had not considered prior. She knew I held different views so I thought it was a great example of civility :^). I didn't get her name though, more on this later.
There was one particularly obnoxious disruptor that stood in the aisle along the wall near where we were seated. Finally my friend said he had to say something to this guy, I said I'd go with him. Not sure if it was the gun or just two people getting in his face but he quieted down significantly :^). There were plenty of "comments" made sporadically by everyone else none the less. Fairly raucous but over all a rather civil meeting considering.
When we stood up to exit the row of seats to confront the disruptor my strong side was away from the lady. When we came back my .45 was probably 12 inches from her face at eye level :^). She left immediately thereafter, which is why I didn't get her name.
I of course have a great idea that would solve the entire health care issue without any government program and was hoping to get called on to speak :^). I figured the best place to be was standing in the aisle so I moved there. Within ten minutes or so a Pulaski County Sheriffs detective approached me and using his best and rather convincing command voice *asked* me to step outside so we could talk..... Ok, voice recorder on.
Attached is what happened after we got into the hall just outside the auditorium. Now if you didn't know I'm under a felony indictment (Code of VA 18.2-85) and one of the few bail conditions that I am under is to "keep the peace" :^). So this little interaction could be significant in that I might be in jail until trial in the end of October... Doubt it, but you never know. So I was a little nervous.
The first minute or so is the detective (thick southern draw) using his best command voice telling me to take it (the gun) off the property and to follow him outside, with a very strong emotional (but non-verbal) aspect implying if I didn't follow him things were going to be going really bad for me. A complete bluff, but still fear instilling to resist. I mean, I could be wrong, right? But he really wasn't answering my question about "Administrative Rules" verses "Law" and such so every few steps I'd ask him again. Finally calling his bluff at 0:53. The detective discerning that *I'm* not bluffing then addresses the college administrator (CA) at 0:58 and you hear the CA join in the discussion (he's the one with the New York area accent asking "Why do you need it?"). The long pause takes place while the CA is standing there and the detective is on his cell phone talking to who knows who. I imagine it was his supervisor saying the gig was up and there was nothing more they could do to "trick" me into compliance without actually violating my rights.
Also by this time a guy from the 2ndtuesdayconstitutiongroup.com is there silently video taping along with the friend I had been sitting with. Everyone knew I was recording the interaction as I was holding my voice recorder up like you would a microphone. The guy video taping (Phil), whom I had not met before, asks if I'm being harassed at 1:52. The conversation then delves into issues of guns on campus and would a gun have prevented the Tech massacre, etc, etc. The whole confrontation then falls apart and everyone goes their separate way.
I said "Thank you Sir" to the detective and "Y'all have a good day" to the CA (should have said, "We do things different here in the South", but I didn't). I then went back into the auditorium and was not bothered the rest of the meeting. It was amazing and a little upseting to have such emotional pressure put on me when I think the detective knew all along there was nothing he could do. Perhaps he did need to phone in for instructions, but I can't believe this was not gone over earlier with all LEOs who were there today since weapons at townhall meetings has so much been in the news as of late.
I did stick around afterward, never having been called on to speak. I was the last person Mr. Boucher spoke with that day, we walked together to his car. I'm not sure if he was uneasy knowing I had a gun, he didn't seem like he was. He was sending signals that he wanted to leave but that could just be that he needed to leave. He gave me his card writing down a different address and said he'd read a short synopsis of my proposal if I sent it to that address. It's a good proposal, it'll fix almost everything :^)!