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2014 Sheriff Candidate Ed Owens has graciously offered to donate some food to the
local Open Carry Community here in Vancouver, WA to have an Open Carry BBQ at the
East Precinct with an open invitation to have the Vancouver Police Department come
out to join us. The intention here is to provide some positive interaction to help relieve
any tensions that may exist. It's an opportunity for the VPD to see that we are not the
enemy and vice versa and to educate others. We have been working with the VPD for a
few weeks now to put this together with their cooperation and have already seen some
positive results.

Please remember that during these events all eyes are on us to put forth a positive
image. For that reason and for reasons of safety we asks that sidearms remain holstered
and if you choose to bring long arms then they need to remain slung. If anyone needs a
sling then we can supply materials to make one. I know it can be tempting to show off
your new Glock to friends however this isn't going to be the place for it.

Gretchen Fraser Neighborhood Park next to the VPD East Precinct

FB Event Page
https://www.facebook.com/events/670513189689483/
 
The Rhino already makes a statement, LOL.

To add to the above there will be a drawing as well. So far we have gift certificates from a local plumbing company for service and a Pocket Constitution that includes both the US and WA State Constitutions. The latter is just like the one I carry with me at all times. If anyone else would like to donate anything let me know. Hope to see a bunch of you out there tomorrow.:)
 
Okay, here is the debrief from the event today. Very encouraged by the support from the open carry community. A little disappointed at the lack of VPD officers showing up for it though as that was the main purpose behind where we held it. We did have the Lieutenant come by and talk to those that were there at the start and he covered the items we are working together on with them to improve the interactions between us and them. The conversation I felt was a good one and is exactly what the goal here was about. Later we had an uniformed officer drop by to chat for a few minutes. One thing that I must thank the VPD for is opening the front door for us to be able to use the restrooms inside. Normally it would be locked on the weekend. Many may not appreciate the difference that one thing makes but I can tell you it does. My estimate of the total number is about 80 people. At it's peak we had almost 60 however there were 20 or so that dropped by for a bit before and after that were not there at that point. That's actually a little better than what I expected. Special thanks to all that made it as your being there shows both support of the Open Carry Community and a desire to improve relations between those that choose to open carry and the local police department. We cannot forget to thank Ed Owens for the donation of food for this. I hope most of those that came by took the chance to thank him. If not add a thanks below. A really huge thanks to Mary's Pistols in Tacoma for all of the goodies they sent down for the drawing and also to Tim Rowe for the certificates for plumbing service. We had all sorts of stuff. Of course the box of .22 ammo was a huge hit. I left a donations can out for donations for printing and enough donations were made to get a couple of hundred more Stop I-594 flyers printed I think. Big thanks for that as I've been doing most of the printing for them out of my own pocket. William Starks and Jim Beal came down from up north as well with a small group and Harley Ed was there as well and came up from Oregon. (Bill was the one that brought the donations down from Mary's) Travis Nugent brought his BBQ and jumped in to fix the hot dogs so thanks to him. I know I'm missing some thanks that need to be made here. Scott Weber came by and is running for County Clerk. When a candidate comes out to support these events it says something about them. In a good way. Don't hesitate to pipe up below with thanks to anyone I missed and your observations as well. Oh, a couple of last notes. Someone called the VPD to try to shut this event down. They defended our right to be there so I'll add that. Also, as usual this event was so disruptive (not) that law enforcement were unconcerned about it. This is the way the open carry events usually turn out. We demonstrate responsibility and have a peaceful event and they know that is what we are doing. We did get some pedestrian that came by and joined as well which was a plus. I think it went very well, had a good time and enjoyed the day.
 

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