GRAA Head: Gun Group Won’t Battle Lexington Over Missed Muster

If “Muster on the Battle Green” organizer Stephen Redfern is going to contest the decision by Lexington officials to suspend the permits for a pro-Second Amendment rally, then it will be without support from Gun Rights Across America, the organization’s president said.

In a phone interview Sunday, Gun Rights Across America President Eric Reed told Patch GRAA has ousted Redfern and Kevin Francisco, the group’s former state coordinators in Massachusetts and the two men who were organizing the “Muster on the Battle Green.”

Reed said the ouster came after the pair “insisted” on going forward with the April 19 rally after Lexington’s Board of Selectmen suspended the group’s permit and placed a two-week moratorium on all public assemblies after the Boston Marathon bombing.

“As soon as they told me the permits got yanked, I told them, ‘Listen guys, we have to either cancel the rally, reschedule the rall or relocate the rally,’” Reed said, adding he offered GRAA’s full cooperation in conversations with Lexington Police.

“Gun Rights Across America is an organization I created to be a mouthpiece for law-abiding gun owners,” Reed continued. “I will not advocate breaking the law or doing anything illegal.”

Lexington selectmen suspended the permit in an emergency meeting held Tuesday, April 16, a day after the Patriots’ Day bombing that killed three in injured scores more at the finish line at the Boston Marathon.  

At the time, town and police officials cited safety concerns over having a large assembly in town at a time when response to the boming and search for the suspects were straining regional resources. It was a decision Reed said he could support, and one many said was affirmed as a violent manhunt played out overnight Thursday and into Friday night.

“We agreed with the decision of the Board of Selectmen,” Reed told Patch on Sunday. “In my honest opinion, with what happened in Boston just prior and with thoe suspects on the loose, we felt it was in the interest of public safety.”

The Muster on the Battle Green was scheduled to take place on Friday, April 19, the 238th anniversary of the start of the American Revolution, when the Lexington Minute Men took up arms against the British Regulars.

A far smaller , but it was on the lawn shared by Buckman Tavern and the Visitor’s Center across from the Battle Green. And it was driven by the Oath Keepers, who held an oath renewal ceremony here as was planned when founder Stewart Rhodes was invited to be a guest speaker at the GRAA’s “Muster on the Battle Green.”

Redfern said a few words to the assembled crowd, vowing to to fight the permit suspension as long as he had the resources.  

Read More on This Issue

• Pro-Gun Rally to ‘Muster on the Battle Green’
• Your Turn: Pro-Gun Rally Has History in the Crosshairs
• Locals Organizing Counter-Rally to Pro-Gun ‘Muster on the Battle Green’
• UPDATE: Marathon Bombing Postpones Permit for ‘Muster on the Battle Green'
• What Now for the 'Muster on the Battle Green" Pro-Second Amendment Rally?
• Gun Advocate to Lexington Officials: It's Not Over