Gun Rights Rally on Boston Common Draws Hundreds
Taking aim at Democrats, the media and others they say are attacking the Second Amendment, hundreds of gun rights activists gathered on the Boston Common Wednesday afternoon to rally to fight a bill that would tighten gun control. “Every time the government passes new gun control laws it creates a problem,” Ying Li, an engineer who participated in the 1989 pro-democracy protests centered on Beijing’s Tiananmen Square, told the crowd. The rally was organized by the Gun Owners’ Action League and was partly in response to new gun control measures being considered at the State House, including Gov. Deval Patrick’s bill to limit firearm purchases to one a month, reduce access to high-powered rounds of ammunition and require background checks before buying weapons at gun shows. Li compared gun control with tyranny, calling on the crowd to “kill (tyranny) in its infancy.” Alan Gottlieb, the founder of the Second Amendment Foundation, followed Li on stage at the Parkman bandstand, echoing the concern that the movement to undo the Second Amendment, as he sees it, is just beginning. “The attempt to ban so-called assault weapons is only the beginning of their attack on the Second Amendment,” Gottlieb said, calling the dismantling of the amendment the “ultimate goal of the Democratic Party.” To stop Patrick’s plan, protesters marched to the State House to meet with lawmakers and urge them to vote against the bill. “The only thing that stands in their way is us and the Republican Party,” Gottlieb said. “Gun control is going to cost (Democrats) control of the Senate. Democrats never learn from history and we gun owners never forget it.” SOUTH END PATCH: Facebook | Twitter | E-mail Updates South End Patch