‘Tyranny Response Team’
Grassroots Colorado
pro-gun group making headlines

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By Jon E. Dougherty
? 2000 WorldNetDaily.com

An unofficial organization composed of gun rights activists has been making
headlines in Colorado during recent weeks by showing up en masse to protest
gun control initiatives.
The group, which calls itself the Tyranny Response Team, last made its
presence felt when Sarah Brady, executive director of Handgun Control, Inc.
and her husband, former Reagan press secretary James Brady, made a stop in
Denver on Wednesday to help raise funds for a new statewide gun control
initiative.

Mrs. Brady began Handgun Control, Inc. shortly after her husband was wounded
in a 1981 attack by John Hinckley, Jr. on President Reagan. Reagan was
wounded in the attack, as was a Washington, D.C. police officer.

About 300 TRT members — husbands, wives and their children — picketed the
Denver fundraiser, held at the Denver Hyatt Regency hotel, where the Bradys
were making a pitch to raise funds for a Colorado initiative sponsored by a
gun control group called SAFE.

SAFE is attempting to place a ballot issue before voters requiring
background checks at gun shows.
About 400 “Tyranny Response Team” members gathered last month to protest
Colorado Gov. Bill Owens’ gun policies.

Some Tyranny Response Team members came from as far away as Wyoming to
attend the event, the Denver Post reported last week. At the event,
“protestors” as young as 5-years-old were sporting tee shirts emblazoned
with “Tyranny Response Team,” as well as posters saying, “It’s about
teaching children morals, not gun control.”

Already planning another gun control protest in Longmont, Colorado on March
31, TRT has demonstrated at five events in the past two months, said the
Post.

The group “targets gun-control groups and favors in-your-face tactics,” the
newspaper noted.

At the Denver event, Bob Glass, owner of a Longmont gun store and one of the
Hyatt protest organizers, said, “We are here tonight to let the world know
that the time for complacency is over.”

Events are planned weeks in advance, and increasingly the Internet is being
used to alert potential protestors about upcoming events — most of which
have been in Colorado.

Obviously fearing confrontation, the Denver Police Department — which had
learned of the planned protest just days before — sent about 75 officers to
watch over demonstrators, said the Post. Hyatt employees also “stood guard
to make sure protestors stayed outside” of the hotel.

However, except for having to ask two people to leave the hotel, the event
was peaceful, Denver police said.

Kelly Barnett, father of two of the youngest “protestors,” 6-year-old Darian
and 5-year-old Sasha, pointed out that his oldest daughter is the same age
as the first-grader who shot a classmate last week in Michigan.

“There’s no way these kids would do that,” Barnett said. He added that he
had already taught his daughters gun safety and that both girls, who each
have .22 caliber rifles, were “sharpshooters.”

Barnett hinted that his daughters were eager to join in the demonstration
and that both of them “want to keep” their rifles.

The Post said James Brady seemed oblivious to the demonstration taking place
outside the hotel.

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Jon E. Dougherty is a staff reporter for WorldNetDaily.