Well, that was interesting. I was just thrown out of an Ohio Carry (Central Chapter) meeting. My speech in Columbus on the 19th now apparently up in the air.

It's been a long day, folks. It was made longer by the following saga. You may recall that I was invited to speak at the Patriot's Day celebration at the Ohio Statehouse on the 19th. Since I am now up in Ohio and had yet to hear of any details or recent confirmation, I went to the library this afternoon to see if I could get ahold of the event organizers. You will note that the announcement indicates that Central Ohio Carry and Ohioans for Concealed Carry are both listed as being represented at the event. Since I could not find the email address of the fellow I originally talked to, and noting from the Ohio Carry website that the Central Ohio chapter was having a meeting tonight on the southeast side of Columbus, I determined that the easiest way to make contact was to show up at the meeting, find the fellow who had invited me and confirm some arrangements. It was an hour's drive away from where I am staying (which doesn't have Internet access, so I'm using the local library and Panera Bread's wifi) I figured, what the heck.

So down I drove, located the meeting site at a local buffet, and then came back at the appointed time. As the group filtered in there was no sign of the fellow who invited me, but the members indicated that he should be coming so I stuck around. None of them was familiar wuth my name, but that's okay, I get that all the time these days and accept it as a sign of the success of the idea (you may recall my reaction at the same thing happening in CT at last year's rally). There was some side conversation about whether or not this was to be a business meeting and it was decided by the half-dozen or so folks there that, no, "thank God," they would just have some conversation over the meal, so it was all very informal. I introduced myself and handed out some cards and listened as they talked about their plans for open carry events. I was especially interested in one that they were planning after the rally on Saturday, when they intended to march onto the campus of Ohio State and I indicated that I would be happy to come along. Like many such groups I've met across the country, they seemed sincere, intelligent and determined. It was when I went to get a refill on my hot tea (I declined to go the thirteen dollar tab for a meal, although the tea was three bucks) when everything went south.

Coming back to the table, an otherwise intelligent and sincere young man in a wheelchair was explaining to the group that "the Davidians had it coming" because "they were converting hand grenades and automatic weapons." Given that he seemed not to be old enough to even have been born in 1993 and sick of twenty years of that kind of crap from firearm-confiscating collectivists, I instantly saw red and blurted out (with what I admit was an absolute lack of tact), "That's bullshit!" He then went on to claim that the Davidians had also fired first. I said, "No they didn't. The ATF fired first. They shot the dogs as they always do." I also told the young man not to be blaming the victims. Now, I perfectly understand the reaction, but the crowd turned on me with a vengeance and indicated that I could take my objections walking and they threw me out of the meeting, such as it was. One of them (also probably in diapers when the FBI was immolating those innocents that he figured had it coming) said that I was a "crazy old douchebag," or words to that effect. I indicated that when they got ahold of the guy who had invited me to come up from Alabama to speak that he should get in touch with me and let me know if it had been a waste of time. Then I left.

So, having learned nothing that I needed to know and as ignorant as before I drove back to where I am staying. My speech, it would seem, is entirely up in the air. In truth, they had not invited me to their meeting and it was well within their rights to ask me to leave, so I really bear them no rancor. But some of them sure don't know shit from shinola about Waco.