Colt 45
01-02-2010, 06:08 PM
Police ask gun group to move (http://www.alamogordonews.com/ci_14109164?source=most_viewed)
Alamogordo Daily News
By Michael Johnson, Managing Editor
Posted: 01/02/2010 12:00:00 AM MST
Alamogordo is bracing for today's planned tea party protest at the corner of 10th Street and White Sands Boulevard.
Unlike past protests staged by the Otero Tea Party Patriots, who publicly despise the Obama administration's policies and what the group's members call "government interference," today's event planned for 1 to 3 p.m. will feature the newly formed Alamogordo Second Amendment Task Force members armed with holstered guns.
According to New Mexico law, it is legal to open-carry a holstered firearm by anyone over the age of 19. A person can openly carry in most places, except in a bar, jail or prison, a school and other locations.
Dan Woodruff, the founder of Alamogordo's 2ATF, said Friday that his group was asked by the Alamogordo Department of Public Safety to move from its planned spot in front of Founder's Park to Alamogordo Airborne Memorial Park. The two locations are located diagonally from each other at the intersection of 10th and White Sands.
The problem, Woodruff said, is that the spot is already occupied by the Otero Tea Party Patriots. The 2ATF was asked by ADPS to move, he said, because another "group" indicated plans to protest the protesters.
"This 'group' didn't file a permit," Woodruff said. "That's great. They can protest. What we're irritated about is we had to file a permit and this 'group' did not. You either need a permit or you don't. If one group needs one, then everyone needs one."
It was not known, because of the New Year's Day holiday, who was planning to protest the tea partiers and 2ATF.
Woodruff said the city's permit process needs to be changed.
"It should be called a notification instead of a permit," he said. "The state Constitution says there shall be no law that takes away your First Amendment rights and permits go against that. When this (protest) is finished, (the permit process) will be our next focus."
Rebecca Browne, a concerned citizen who has been extremely vocal this past week in trying to block the protest, said the city could have "done something" to stop it.
"I think they could have stopped it and chose not to," she said. "I've done everything I could to stop it. I called everyone I know, but it's still going to happen. I don't have a whole lot of respect for the people who run this town."
Browne, who calls herself a liberal, said her husband Ron plans to protest the protesters.
"I don't even want him down there, but he feels like he has to go," she said. "I hope nothing happens. I have a bad feeling about this whole thing."
A Las Cruces tea party group intends to travel to Alamogordo today to join the Otero tea partiers, according to an e-mail message sent to the Daily News.
"Red Alert! Protest in Alamogordo," states the e-mail message that originated from the Las Cruces Tea Party. "We received information about a protest in Alamogordo taking place on Jan 2, 2010, from 1 to 3 p.m. Members of the Las Cruces Tea Party decided to support the groups that are sponsoring this protest. As all Tea Parties begin to support each other, the movement will continue to become stronger and more effective in swaying government policy!"
Browne said firearms and protests are a bad mixture.
"I don't want to see gun control, but you don't mix guns with protests," she said.
Contact Michael Johnson at mjohnson@alamogordonews.com.
Alamogordo Daily News
By Michael Johnson, Managing Editor
Posted: 01/02/2010 12:00:00 AM MST
Alamogordo is bracing for today's planned tea party protest at the corner of 10th Street and White Sands Boulevard.
Unlike past protests staged by the Otero Tea Party Patriots, who publicly despise the Obama administration's policies and what the group's members call "government interference," today's event planned for 1 to 3 p.m. will feature the newly formed Alamogordo Second Amendment Task Force members armed with holstered guns.
According to New Mexico law, it is legal to open-carry a holstered firearm by anyone over the age of 19. A person can openly carry in most places, except in a bar, jail or prison, a school and other locations.
Dan Woodruff, the founder of Alamogordo's 2ATF, said Friday that his group was asked by the Alamogordo Department of Public Safety to move from its planned spot in front of Founder's Park to Alamogordo Airborne Memorial Park. The two locations are located diagonally from each other at the intersection of 10th and White Sands.
The problem, Woodruff said, is that the spot is already occupied by the Otero Tea Party Patriots. The 2ATF was asked by ADPS to move, he said, because another "group" indicated plans to protest the protesters.
"This 'group' didn't file a permit," Woodruff said. "That's great. They can protest. What we're irritated about is we had to file a permit and this 'group' did not. You either need a permit or you don't. If one group needs one, then everyone needs one."
It was not known, because of the New Year's Day holiday, who was planning to protest the tea partiers and 2ATF.
Woodruff said the city's permit process needs to be changed.
"It should be called a notification instead of a permit," he said. "The state Constitution says there shall be no law that takes away your First Amendment rights and permits go against that. When this (protest) is finished, (the permit process) will be our next focus."
Rebecca Browne, a concerned citizen who has been extremely vocal this past week in trying to block the protest, said the city could have "done something" to stop it.
"I think they could have stopped it and chose not to," she said. "I've done everything I could to stop it. I called everyone I know, but it's still going to happen. I don't have a whole lot of respect for the people who run this town."
Browne, who calls herself a liberal, said her husband Ron plans to protest the protesters.
"I don't even want him down there, but he feels like he has to go," she said. "I hope nothing happens. I have a bad feeling about this whole thing."
A Las Cruces tea party group intends to travel to Alamogordo today to join the Otero tea partiers, according to an e-mail message sent to the Daily News.
"Red Alert! Protest in Alamogordo," states the e-mail message that originated from the Las Cruces Tea Party. "We received information about a protest in Alamogordo taking place on Jan 2, 2010, from 1 to 3 p.m. Members of the Las Cruces Tea Party decided to support the groups that are sponsoring this protest. As all Tea Parties begin to support each other, the movement will continue to become stronger and more effective in swaying government policy!"
Browne said firearms and protests are a bad mixture.
"I don't want to see gun control, but you don't mix guns with protests," she said.
Contact Michael Johnson at mjohnson@alamogordonews.com.