Fairbanks Second Amendment group gathers again at church
By Chris Freiberg
Published Thursday, March 5, 2009
FAIRBANKS - Fairbanks’ growing Second Amendment Task Force will meet at 7 tonight at Friends Community Church for a panel discussion about gun rights.
Representatives from the Fairbanks Police Department, Alaska State Troopers and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms are expected to attend the meeting to take questions about the right to bear arms.
The panel is the latest event put together by Schaeffer Cox, the
24-year-old entrepreneur who organized the first meeting of the task force last month at Denny’s. That first meeting drew a crowd of more than 150 people, most of whom heard about the event through e-mail or radio.
About 600 people turned out for a follow-up meeting at Friends Church, and Cox said he anticipates a crowd of about 1,000 tonight.
“I don’t know what we’re going to do if we get much bigger, because it would be awfully expensive to rent the Carlson Center,” he said.
Cox, who ran unsuccessfully for the state Legislature last year, has said he formed the task force as a response to what he feels is an ongoing encroachment of the right to bear arms. So far the group has petitioned state and federal legislators to resist legislation such as House Resolution 45, a bill introduced by an Illinois congressman that would require a federal or state license to own a gun, among other things.
The bill does not have any co-sponsors, and is unlikely to go before the House for a full vote. The task force also asked gun owners to openly carry their firearms for two weekends in February, as part of an effort to show that most gun owners are responsible people.
The movement seems to be gaining steam. Cox said he has been asked to speak about gun rights throughout the state, and he has also received inquiries from people Outside who are interested in starting their own task forces.
