From the June 2000 Idaho Observer:

The 50 Million Round March

The Father's Day answer to the Misinformed Mothers March

By Hari Heath

Are you a gun owner who is tired of politicians who don't seem to understand the simple English phrase “shall not be infringed?” Are you tired of media misinformation campaigns designed to destroy the right to keep and bear arms? Do you see the writing on the wall and want to be part of a nationwide movement to turn back the tides of treason? Would you and your family like to spend Father's Day making a difference in the war against your rights, while also having a good time at the target range? Like Millions of gun owners and second amendment activists around the country, Jeff Head, a man from Emmett, Idaho, was as outraged as the rest of us, watching the not even close to a million misinformed mothers march themselves around the mall in Washington D.C.

Jeff came up with a brilliant solution, The 50 Million Round March, which he began to promote on the internet. What if fathers all across our nation took their families to a firing range for Father's Day and safely spent an hour or so shooting at targets with their children, and then sent letters, with a few enclosed memento's from the event, to politicians and others who are actively seeking to destroy the 2nd Amendment?

The idea has taken off across our nation like a brush fire in a windy New Mexican desert. From the 50 Million Round March's web site (www.50mrmarch.com): “The mission of the '50 Million Round March' is to send an unequivocal, annual message to our elected representatives and to those who would infringe on our unalienable right to self defense as enumerated by the 2nd Amendment ... 'DON'T TREAD ON ME!.' We are numerous, we are families, we are committed and we will not have the right to defend our loved ones and our liberty infringed upon!”

The mission of this event will demonstrate to elected officials the resolve and the numbers of those individuals committed to retaining their 2nd Amendment rights and send those officials a message to cease enacting laws which infringe on this right for law abiding citizens. This includes influencing those same officials to rescind laws currently on the books which infringe on this right, and urge them to only enact and enforce laws which punish those citizens who use firearms in the commission of a crime against another citizen's person or property. We call on all patriotic Americans, regardless of race or creed, who hold the Constitution and Bill of Rights to be the best enumeration of our most important God given rights, and who are willing to defend it against all enemies foreign or domestic, to join us in sending this message to our elected officials and those who would deny us of our 2nd Amendment rights.

Fathers: Bring your children, write your unambiguous letters to your elected representatives, and take photographs of you and your children exercising your unalienable right to self-defense so that they and their posterity may always retain in remembrance what is required for continued liberty.”

What is the 50 Million Round March? On Father's Day, June 18, 2000, at 2 PM EDT, 1 PM CDT, 12 Noon MDT and 11 AM PDT, let us stand as father's for family and liberty with our wives, brothers, sisters, children, relatives and friends. Let us go to our local gun ranges (public or private), and collectively send 50 million rounds down range to demonstrate our resolve and the true meaning of our 2nd Amendment rights. Let it be a shot, no a volley, “heard 'round the world,” and more particularly, around the halls of Congress. Then, let us send our elected representatives letters indicating our resolve regarding the 2nd Amendment, and let us include a memento, such as the target we used, or samples of our empty brass, and invite them to join with us in our next 50 Million Round March event. Finally, let's photograph ourselves and our loved ones as we exercise this most basic right to defend our lives and liberties, and let us join with others to create a “Gallery” for our posterity, showing them not only that we took our responsibilities seriously, but showing THEM how to do it. 50 million rounds ... 50 million rounds in an hour of simple target practice ... 50 MILLION ROUNDS!

What can you do in your local area to support and participate in this national event? Contact your local Gun clubs and gun organizations. Inform them of the event and enlist their support. Contact local gun/firing ranges and inform them of the event and schedule the range. Contact local newspapers, radio and television stations and inform them of the event and the mission. Urge all who attend to bring cameras so they may photograph their involvement with their children in this event. Announce your local event to gun and hunting clubs and local gun shops. Post flyers on Bulletin Boards at stores and shops. Inform your friends, relatives, neighbors, and those in your Email lists. Contact local Radio, Newspapers and TV and invite local media to the event. Contact Churches and Synagogues. Identify a local “Range Monitor” for safety and post all safety requirements visibly and have them available as handouts as people arrive.

Insure that the “Range Monitor” understands and monitors all safety requirements during the event. Attend the event with your wife, children, parents, friends, relatives and neighbors. Have blank letters, targets, and envelopes available as people arrive. Have addresses available for politicians and others, especially those who are working against our rights. AT 2 PM EST, 1 PM CST, 12 Noon MST and 11 AM PST ... begin firing.

Throughout the event, insure that photographs are being taken of families exercising this precious and important right. Be willing to interview with the local media, courteously and forthrightly stating the mission statement. Have participants fill out a letter to their reps, including a memento (i.e.. a target, empty brass or photo's) from the event if they so desire. Insure everyone knows how to submit their photographs to the Photo Gallery” and encourage them to do so ASAP. Collect letters and mail them, or be sure to encourage attendees to mail their own ASAP.

In a further, major development Sierra Times (www.sierratimes.com) has announced plans to create an on-line “Fifty Million Round Photo Gallery” of fathers, their families, and their children exercising their Second Amendment rights at the various Fifty Million Round March events. J. J. Johnson, Editor-in-Chief of Sierra Times, indicates that, “The goal of Sierra Times in support of the Fifty Million Round March: 100,000 fathers and their children together on Father's day at the gun range. An Internet Gallery of Armed Americans -- and their children. A message Washington will never forget -- and can't ignore.”

Jeff Head, an organizer of the Fifty Million Round March, adds, “The Fifty Million Round March fully supports Sierra Times in creating an on-line storage medium of pictures of fathers and their children ... families and their children, exercising their 2nd Amendment rights together. This will send a most powerful message, a message not only to the politicians of today, but equally important, a message to the upcoming generation in America about a great hallmark of their liberty and how it is to be preserved.”

Gary Fleetwood, an Executive Director from the Sporting Shooters Association of Australia (www.ssaa.org.au), whose group endorses the Fifty Million Round March in America, added his unique perspective when he stated, “Australian firearm owners have experienced the swift and savage consequences of firearm legislation which was implemented because of political expediency.

I urge you to participate in this activity to indicate to politicians that law abiding firearm owners in the United States are unified and will deal swiftly at the ballot box with those who support the same draconian gun legislation as seen in Australia.” The Second Amendment Sisters (www.sas-aim.org), and The Tyranny Response Team (www.TRTeam.com), have also declared themselves as endorsing organizations of this new Second Amendment preservation effort. For more information, including targets and sample letters to politicians, please visit www.50mrmarch.com