ABC News
This is how to make another gun rally in gun-friendly Texas stand out: Tell everybody to bring their rifles and shotguns to the Alamo, the state's most popular attraction, which sits downtown in the country's seventh-largest city. And be sure to invite the state's gun-friendliest politician, who also happens to hold the keys to the historic site.
When the organizers of "Come and Take It San Antonio!" made plans for a display of long guns Saturday, this setting seemed ideal but the event is now drawing attention for breaking a century-long tradition against public demonstrations at the shrine of Texas liberty, where Col. William Travis and 200 Texas defenders famously died in a siege with the Mexican army in 1836. Such public displays have usually been relegated to an adjacent plaza.
Some are asking whether a pro-gun group has gone too far in extolling firearms rights, a feat considered near impossible in Texas. And whether a politician may have been too willing to accommodate them.
"We certainly consider the Alamo our family cemetery," said Lee Spencer White, president of the Alamo Defenders' Descendants Association. "Our guys died there and we take it very seriously."
Inside the weathered stone mission church where the Texans made their last stand, "You instantly become reverent," she said. "You feel the sacrifice and the emotions of those who died there. You can't help but leave feeling moved and changed forever."
But rally organizers say the site fits their cause, protesting a San Antonio local ordinance they say impinges on firearms rights.
"We're doing this to show that we're not going to back down," said Victoria Montgomery, a spokeswoman for Open Carry Texas, one of the groups behind the event.
I'm likely going to take some well deserved flames here, but here goes. Lets look at the words used to describe the Alamo, shrine, cemetery, reverent. I immediately think of any military cemetery up to and including Arlington.
ReplyDeleteI personally have a hard time thinking that ANY political demonstration for ANY cause would be acceptable here. I know I'm old and set in my ways. Perhaps Texas Colt Carry can throw some input into this to assuage my distaste for this event. But when I think of political demonstrations at cemeteries, especially a military one, I tend to think of a certain Baptist church in Kansas.
I don't agree with much you say, but I agree with you here. Take the political stuff elsewhere. We do not need a bunch of gunsucks poking their thumbs in our eyes at the Alamo. Let them use the Plaza next door.
DeleteI see the Alamo as a reminder that though we may lose battles, we must win the war. The place is a symbol for how far Texans are willing to go.
DeleteEvery last one of them was killed. That's Texas performance.
DeleteUsing the Alamo fighters to insult Texas...classy, anon.
DeleteThey LOST dude, but keep living in your delusion.
DeleteThat's like saying Detroit is the greatest team in baseball this year.
I don't know, it seems to me the spirit of the Alamo tradition is in perfect alignment with the 3%er's supposed position. What better place to demonstrate.
ReplyDeleteOf course, people who are slaughtered to a man in a battle in which they were greatly outnumbered shouldn't be put on a pedestal, in my opinion. Neither should the open-carry demonstrators try to pawn themselves off as some kind of freedom-fighters.
Mikeb, some things are worth fighting for, even if the fight looks hopeless.
DeleteWow! Insulting the men of the Alamo! Nice, Mike.
DeleteBy the way, sure--they died, but they took a Hell of a lot of Santa Anna's men with them and tied him up while the rest of Texas got its act together in such a way that they crushed Santa Anna in 18 minutes.
Maybe you want to make fun of the Spartans and others at Thermopylae while you're insulting heroes, offending wide swaths of people, and showing a profound lack of understanding.
Finding yourself overwhelmed in battle and getting killed as a result does not make you a hero. It makes you unlucky.
DeleteIt's facile and mindless jingoism to sing their praises.
So we add history and military strategy to the list of things about which gun control freaks are ignorant.
ReplyDeleteWho's ignorant? You can't tell a loss from a win.
ReplyDelete