It has come to my attention that a year and a half after this event, and 4+ months after the 11th anniversary founders reunion, and about 8-9 years after pushing away/kicking out most of the founders, MOC will be hosting its own version of the 10th anniversary dinner. I thought I should clarify a few things publicly that their email got wrong.
Brighton's McDonald's meeting in December of 2007 with Venator, myself, Mastiff69 and his wife can't be counted as the beginning. The earliest I know of anyone in Michigan OCing in an urban area as a result of the movement spawned by this site, was me in about September or October of 2007, by myself in a few cities in Oakland County. Unfortunately John Pierce accidentally deleted the thread about the experiences of the early days, and so those records and so much more are long gone. More than a year before I started out, warchild was OCing in Owosso, but unaware it was a movement, he just read the laws and went for it, later finding this site.
That said, pistols, like long guns and bows and sticks have been carried since they were created. More than a decade prior, at least one Militia guy was OCing around his neighborhood without the present day transport laws and shall issue, its somewhere on YouTube on an old news clip. There is no pride nor positive self image to be extracted from carrying weapons. They are just tools, kind of like the anti gun criminal cops we have mostly succeeded in stopping from abusing us. The history of the beginning of hgoc's movement in Michigan doesn't mean much other than to the folks who were there or people who value and study activism, and with rare exception, all were kicked out or pushed away, so I will admit to being somewhat surprised this is an event, especially considering the lengths present day MOC has gone to distance itself from its activist roots.
In case anyone wondered if I would show up, the answer is no. I already did. I won't be going again.
