Road Trip to an Anti-Government Gun Rally

[SecularMotion]

On a recent windy Saturday morning, Andy Poliakoff, a member of an anti-government group called the Oath Keepers, pulls up his black Dodge Ram to a Dunkin’ Donuts in Long Island, New York. Poliakoff had invited me to join him and a buddy on a road trip to Connecticut. They planned to protest a gun control law passed in the wake of the 2012 Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting, in which 20 children and six teachers died. It’s the most stringent gun control law in the nation. And it drives the Oath Keepers batty.

The Oath Keepers is one of the fastest growing “patriot” groups on the right. It’s a national, grassroots organization composed of mainly men and women in uniform—cops, soldiers, firefighters, veterans, paramedics—who are wary of what they view as an increasingly tyrannical government, and who revere the Constitution as inviolable. Especially the Second Amendment. The organization’s name comes from one of its battle cries—a callout to fellow government employees who’ve vowed to serve our nation: “Stop Big Brother! Expose unconstitutional actions! Honor your oath!”

To find out whether the Oath Keepers are dangerous nut jobs or just regular guys alarmed by the rise of our national surveillance state and the erosion of civil liberties, I poked around Facebook and reached out to Poliakoff, a massive 36-year-old paramedic and volunteer fireman. When he picks me up in his truck, I scan the inside of the cab. I had assumed he would bring a gun for our trip, but apparently he didn’t feel like exercising his Second Amendment rights that day.

As we drive down the Cross Island Expressway, Poliakoff’s buddy, Lou Arquer, 44, a muscular guy who sells plumbing supplies, rides shotgun. Bumper stickers festoon the rear window of Poliakoff’s pickup, emblems of the Oath Keepers and New York Mutual Assistant Group (NYMAG), which teaches combat skills and survival teamwork. One inspiring sticker says “pro choice” above an array of bullets.

http://www.vocativ.com/usa/guns/anti-government-patriots-crusaders-armed-nut-jobs/

[ileus]

1. It's a shame we let the RWer's be the progressive voice on our 2A rights.

Does the writer ever explain just how he was invited on the road trip?

I wouldn't think a hardcore oathkeeper would keep company with a liberal journalist.

[Lurks Often]

2. The writer is.....less then accurate

Whether intentional or not, the writer over states both the number of people open carrying and the number of people that would be easily identified as very right wing. I should know, because I was at that rally.

Of the approximately 3000-4000 people there, I doubt I saw more then a dozen people open carrying a rifle or shotgun and maybe 2-3% of the rest of the crowd open carrying a handgun. There were a number of women there and there were large contingents of people who drove in from upstate New York, New Hampshire and Massachusetts and people from other states as well.

The vast majority were dressed like the typical American and that average gun control extremist would never think that they were gun owners based on appearance.

As for the speakers, I didn't pay too much attention to them, but I'll point that the purpose of any speaker at a politically based rally is to get the crowd involved and you don't do that without being loud and saying things that everybody will agree with.

[Eleanors38]

3. The increasing extremism of DU's gun-control/prohibitionists...

...share responsibility for this Oath Keeper
business: "the lynchpin is the specter of door-to-door gun confiscation."

No One Wants to Take Your Guns Away™ is a bad joke.

Loudness begets loudness.