Freedom fighters. (Shutterstock/Blulz60)
What’s better than a bunch of libertarians marching around D.C. carrying loaded rifles? How about a like-minded group walking past the monuments the day before, but in a demonstration that’s actually legal.
In response to libertarian activist Adam Kokesh’s planned July 4 march in which the participants will supposedly be carrying loaded rifles—in blatant violation of D.C.’s tough gun laws—another activist says he’s putting together a better, and more acceptable, event for the day before.
Austin Petersen, a video producer for the libertarian organization FreedomWorks, says that Kokesh’s designs of crossing the Arlington Memorial Bridge ahead of a pack of gun-toting Second Amendment believers is a provocative discredit to the cause. But because he’s still an ardent opponent of gun control laws like D.C.’s, Petersen still wants to send a pro-firearm message around the Independence Day holiday. A legal one, that is.
So, on July 3, Petersen wants to head up a parade of libertarians and maybe their families hosting toy guns, like water pistols and Nerf blasters. The “Armed Toy Gun March on D.C.” will follow the same route around the monuments and National Mall as Kokesh lays out for his march the day later, but the only “weapons” will be tiny water jets and foam darts.
“I don’t like it when Kokesh goes out there and talks about peace and loaded weapons,” Petersen says in an interview. “People who say they believe in peace and non-intervention, you need to show you believe in those principles.”
But don’t mistake Petersen, who lives in Ballston, as a pro-gun control watchdog. For one thing, there’s his job with FreedomWorks. He also edits a conservative website called The Libertarian Republic, on which he wrote yesterday that Kokesh’s proposed rally does a great disservice to the cause of promoting individual freedoms.
Liberty! (Photo by Geoff Greene)
“If we want less war, we need to be less warlike ourselves,” Petersen says. “The idea of libertarianism is personal responsibility. If you can’t act responsibly, then you can’t own a gun. We can still have fun and not be negative and confrontational.”
Petersen’s march is then still very much a pro-gun rally, just without the guns and in accordance with the District laws he firmly opposes. Instead of scoped hunting rifles, the Armed Toy Gun March will feature water balloons and “fun signs.”
And after the parade route, Petersen says the participants can have a nice field day on the National Mall, pummeling each other with water sprays and air-propelled rubber darts, and playing games like kickball and dodgeball. But as it’s a political event, he might still line up a few speakers.
“I totally disagree with the District’s gun laws, and that’ll be the message of this march,” Petersen says. “But of course safety comes with being responsible, and in order to demonstrate we are responsible citizens, we should behave responsibly, and that’s what this march is all about.”
In an interview yesterday on NewsChannel 8, D.C. Police Chief Cathy Lanier said that Kokesh and anyone joining his march should expect to be turned back at the District border when they try to cross the Memorial Bridge. Petersen’s rally shouldn’t arouse a similar reaction; there’s nothing inherently illegal with a water balloon or Nerf gun. He is also applying for a permit to stage a demonstration from the National Park Service, which oversees the Memorial Bridge. (Kokesh isn’t.)
Petersen says it isn’t personal with Kokesh; in fact, he’s largely supportive of many of the former Marine’s activities, such as when Kokesh was arrested for dancing inside the Jefferson Memorial. But there’s a clear division in the approaches?
“Are you going to act like Martin Luther King or are you going to act like Malcolm X?” Petersen says, noting that Kokesh’s website is filled with references to the former, along with other peace advocates like Mahatma Ghandi. “Who got more done? I’m challenging the libertarian movement. If you really believe in the principles of Dr. King, come to this event and live out his principles, because he was the one who advocated nonviolence just like libertarians do.”
And as for the following day, when Kokesh tries to stage his fully loaded Independence Day march? “On July 4 when Adam is doing his thing, the rest of us are going to watch the fireworks with the rest of Americans,” Petersen says.
UPDATE, 6:21 p.m.: Metropolitan Police Department Chief Cathy Lanier confirms that a bunch of Second Amendment fans parading throughout D.C. with toy guns don’t need to worry about being repelled at the midpoint of the Arlington Memorial Bridge. “No problem,” she writes in an email.
That’s a relief. Considering Adam Kokesh is now upping his Independence Day plans from the loaded-rifle march to a call for citywide lawbreaking, July 3 should be delightful.
