2nd Amendment rally attracts about 100
About 100 people gathered in Diamond Park Saturday morning for a Second Amendment rally during which a few Republican politicians pushed attendees to vote.
Firearms Owners Against Crime, a political action committee that lobbies against gun control and for more lenient gun restrictions, organizes the annual event. FOAC’s president, Kim Stolfer, spoke, as did Congressman Mike Kelly, state Rep. Brian Ellis, R-11th, state Rep. Tedd Nesbit, R-8th, and Butler County Commissioner Kim Geyer.
From a political perspective, the event was a means to rally voters. Kelly and Ellis are both up for re-election this year.
“If there’s one thing that will bring this country down, it’s us not participating in elections,” Kelly said.
Asked in an interview what the nation’s biggest challenge is moving forward, he returned to his voter participation.
“Our biggest challenge is complacency,” he said. “Things are going so good in this nation, we think we don’t have to worry right now.”
Many in the crowd, on the other hand, came to express their fear of various levels of government. Guns were their common means to feel protected from the government.
Ron Amity, president of Butler’s FOAC chapter, led organization efforts for the event. He said his organization works with state legislators to protect Second Amendment rights.
Though his organization’s name mentions crime, Amity took umbrage with law enforcement during the event. He told the crowd that the country’s founders wanted to ensure gun rights to protect from a tyrannical government, and that today that tyranny is called the “deep state.”
In an interview before his speech, Amity clarified who he means when he says the deep state: top law enforcers such as the FBI, the CIA and other federal agencies.
“The liberal left is always talking about their First Amendment rights,” Amity said. “If the Second Amendment rights go, all the others go too.”
Hobson McKown, a State College resident, said he attended because local governments have violated his rights in the name of safety. He claims the Butler County Government Center security team stole a pistol from him in 2014.
“It’s easy for them to say they’re doing something for safety and security,” McKown said.
Stolfer carried a copy of draft house bill 2227, which outlines how a judge could grant temporary risk protection orders to seize someone’s weapons until a hearing if they’re suspected of misusing the weapons.
He was particularly bothered with a factor someone filing a petition could use in court to get said protection orders levied against someone they believe to be planning suicide or violence. A judge could consider a person having recently bought a firearm as a factor when considering the orders.
“This is the kind of insanity that goes as public policy in Harrisburg,” Stolfer said, pointing to the document.
He referred to the bill as evidence that some Republicans, such as state Rep. Todd Stephens, R-Montgomery, were not gun-friendly enough. Stephens sponsored the bill, which has bipartisan support.
Mike Snapp, a FOAC member who also spoke during the event, listed two reasons why Butler County is a stronghold of gun friendly Pennsylvanians.
Part of it is just the number of gun owners we have here,” Snapp said. “And part is the number of conservative thinking voters we have.”
Geyer kicked the event off with a reading of a county proclamation making Aug. 18 Second Amendment Day in Butler County.
