Gun-Rights Extremists March in Boise to Promote Open-Carry Bill
Confederate flag appears at Idaho rally alongside GOA鈥檚 Larry Pratt, as hundreds demand passage of bill allowing guns to be carried openly anywhere.
Led by a woman bearing a Confederate flag, marched on the Idaho Statehouse on Saturday in Boise demanding passage of a bill that would allow permitless 鈥渙pen carry鈥� of guns in the state.
The event鈥檚 featured speaker was gun-rights advocate Larry Pratt of the聽Gun Owners of America, who that 鈥済uns and Bibles鈥� were 鈥渢he foundations of our liberty,鈥� and urged them to run primary聽election campaigns against any legislators reluctant to support the legislation.
Organized by the Idaho Second Amendment Foundation, the march to the Capitol steps included large numbers of people carrying their weapons openly. A number of children were among the marchers, some of them carrying plastic toy guns.
The marchers assembled downtown at the Boise Center on the Grove and then proceeded from there to the capitol. They were accompanied by a massive police presence, reportedly there at the organizers鈥� behest.
One participant, Boise resident Tom Row, told : "I believe that we have to be seen, that people have to see us, that we are real. We are not just a figment of their imagination and these are rights that we believe in. This is what made America great.鈥�
Other speakers at the event included right聽wing radio host Kevin Miller; Greg Pruett, president of the ISSA; Wayne Hoffman, president of the Idaho Freedom Foundation; and former Idaho state senator and gubernatorial candidate Russ Fulcher.
All of the speakers decried the Idaho Legislature鈥檚 apparent reluctance to approve House Bill 422, which would allow people to openly carry guns without a permit everywhere they are otherwise legal in the state.
Pratt decried what he called the 鈥渟tigma鈥� attached to people who carry their guns in public.
鈥淭here鈥檚 such an animus to regular folks carrying a weapon, particularly a concealed firearm,鈥� he said, and then described two incidents in which gun owners (one of them an Uber driver) allegedly used their weapons to stop would-be killers, both involving concealed-carry permit holders, which he said demonstrated the 鈥渁dvantage of people carrying a firearm.鈥�
鈥淭hey had permits, it wasn鈥檛 permitless carry, but imagine how much we could multiply that if the animus against carry and conceal is removed and people realize that the government so sanctions it, but there鈥檚 no permit required, just like I don鈥檛 have to have a permit to take a breath,鈥� he said.
Similarly, signs at the rally declared: 鈥淎n Armed Society Is a Polite Society,鈥� 鈥淭he Constitution Is My Permit,鈥� and 鈥淔reedom: Gun Laws Take It Away.鈥�
And at the top of the steps, the woman who led the parade with her Confederate flag waved it proudly, providing a backdrop for all the speakers.
