Gun Industry's Court
Battle Opens Last Day's Session
Our GRPC 2000 report is divided into sessions
for easier reading.
Click on the desired section to read.
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September 29, 2000
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September 30, 2000
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October 1, 2000
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By Bob Lesmeister
GRPC attendees enjoyed a mid-morning refreshment break hosted
by Browning following the "natural allies" panel, but
were quick to return for the Guns and The Media Forum discussion,
moderated by Joe Tartaro, president of SAF and editor of The New
Gun Week. Before introducing the first speaker, Tartaro cited
the media spin following the first debate between Rick Lazio and
Hillary Clinton, where Lazio was likened to a stalker and Hillary's
defeat was turned into a "victory" overnight. "I
think the best spin example was probably the column by Maureen
Dowd in The New York Times in which she said Lazio had turned
off women because he suddenly became the 'abusive husband' who
complained about the misuse of the credit card and how the car
was parked. "If you were there you saw one thing, but when
you hear the spin doctors and the experts who appear on the countless
broadcast and cable shows, all you get are interpretations of
the news, not real news," Tartaro said.
Media Management
Rob Geist, senior account executive, Craig Shirley &
Associates (media consultants), expounded on the problems with
the media. "We have a story to tell, but the problem is the
media wants to hear something that can be wrapped up in a 26-minute
newscast, preferably in a two- or three-minute segment."
Geist asked if anyone could remember the last time the media showed
a truthful representation of a hunter or sportsman, or recalled
the all-but-invisible coverage of shooting events at the Olympics.
The problem he surmised is that the people in the media are not
only spawns of liberal colleges like Yale and Harvard, but are
subject to a culture that they need to embrace in order to survive.
He recalled that two anti-gun talking heads, Tom Brokaw and Dan
Rather, both grew up in states that are gun friendly, South Dakota
and Texas respectively. But in order to get ahead, both embraced
the anti-gun agenda.
The end of the military draft is also one of the contributing
factors why pro-gunners have a hard time making their point. Without
the draft, we have lost two generations of Americans who never
had to pick up a gun, shoot one or even understand the need for
firearms for defense. Geist recalled The New York Times' review
of the movie, "The Patriot," and how the scene where
Mel Gibson's character provides his sons with muskets to slay
the British who killed one of his other children, was called "repugnant."
Yet a review of a movie called "Full Attention," which
glorified sexual conquests of two step-siblings was praised for
its wit and clever plot.
"Drugs and sex are okay, but guns are different. How do
we change this? We have to start at the grass roots," Geist
said. "We have to remember that reporters who end up as Tom
Brokaw and Dan Rather started out as Tommy Brokaw and Danny Rather
writing for the local newspaper. Get to these local media people
now and invite them over. Show them that we are regular people.
Let them know that Ed, who owns the corner grocery store, or Jim,
the mechanic, are gunowners. They aren't the crazy gun nuts so
often portrayed in the press."
Getting the word out that gun people protect the community
and are concerned with safety is also important, said Geist. The
media never reports on the thousands of children who are trained
in safety by NRA's Eddie Eagle or the thousands of police officers
who are trained by NRA instructors, but are quick to praise the
efforts of the Administration or local government.
On-Line Resources
Dave Kopel, senior fellow of the Cato Institute and policy
analyst at the Independence Institute, explained that there are
many ways to get the pro-gun point across in spite of the vicious
lies that gun-grabbing organizations spread about honest gunowners.
"One of the key lies out there comes from the 'Million' Mom
March. Their line is they'll win because they love their kids
more than we love our guns. That is a vicious and mean-spirited
libel. We are not here because we love guns, we're here because
we love freedom and we want people to be safer and happier, and
guns are wonderful tools to accomplish that. Gun ownership not
only makes gunowners safer, it makes everyone safer," he
said.
Kopel cited the lower home invasion and burglary rates in the
United States compared to other countries. About half the homes
in America have guns and the burglars don't know which are the
ones that do. Only about 13% of American home burglaries or home
invasions occur when somebody is there, said Kopel. In countries
such as the Netherlands, Ireland and England, that rate is over
50%, because in those countries burglars prefer to have someone
home because they can be pressured to turn off burglar alarms
and lead them to where the cash is hidden. Many times the burglaries
in these countries also lead to personal assaults.
"You are not just pro-choice. You are pro-life, too. You
are the guys who are saving lives. You are the ones who can prevent
those horrible crimes."
Before turning the microphone over to Tom Gresham, host of
the nationally syndicated radio show, "Gun Talk," Kopel
invited everyone to tap into his website, independenceinstitute.org
to sign up for free weekly and semi-weekly e-mail newsletters.
Gresham related how he handled a news crew from MSNBC when
they wanted to do a piece on guns. He took them out on the range,
had everyone from the producer to the sound man try out different
guns and they all had a good time, so much so, they didn't want
to quit. He set up interviews with everyday gunowners like a veterinarian
and a 29-year-old soon-to-be mother. The final product was a very
fair representation of the firearms community, said Gresham. Don't
be afraid to talk about guns, he said, but make sure what you
say is effective. "The minute you let the word 'Hitler' escape
your lips, you lose. You may be right, but instantly lose. It's
not about being right. It's about winning."
In order to help out those who want to vocalize on the gun
issue, Gresham set up what he calls the Truth Squad on his website,
guntalk.com. "What I do is write template letters that expose
the truth about some of the falsehoods that are flying around
about guns, gunowners and gun rights. I put them into a mailing
list for people who subscribe to the Truth Squad. These subscribers
can then take the letters and change them a little and submit
them to their local newspaper. I believe that a thousand people
writing to their editorial page in their local newspapers are
far more effective in changing public opinion than 10,000 writing
to Congress."
Gresham reminded everyone that it's not only their duty to
bitch when they see or hear anti-gun items in the media, it's
also a must to say thanks to the media when they get it right.
And when you follow up and offer your help, chances are that media
person will include you in his list of contacts.
Gun Show Ballot Issues was the last panel of the day.
Joe Waldron, chairman of WeCARE and executive director of CCRKBA,
reminded everyone that Election 2000 is extremely important. He
also mentioned that there are states that allow initiatives, whereby
citizens by vote can overturn legislative action. While initiatives
can work for the pro-gun cause, they can also work against it.
"The initiative process sounds good, because the people have
control over government. But it's a double-edged sword. It's very
dependent on PR and media spin. What you have to do to pass or
defeat an initiative is manipulate the pubic. Colorado and Oregon
are going to be running gun show 'loophole' initiatives. Once
they close the gun show 'loophole,' they can then open the private
sale 'loophole' to an initiative and go the rest of the way in
terms of eliminating all privacy of gun transactions."
Another problem with initiatives is that some states can have
as many as 20 or 30 on a ballot, and when the voter sees all of
these the natural tendency is to vote no on all of them. That's
good if there are anti-gun initiatives buried in the pile but
bad if there are pro-gun programs that need to be passed. Waldron
then discussed the means of using the voter initiative process
to campaign for the pro-gun cause.
Initiative Campaigns
In order to put a campaign together you have to establish
an infrastructure, a point addressed by John Barnett, executive
director of SAF. "You build infrastructure by getting respected
individuals with professional credentials and by getting people
involved in an open dialog," he said. Using focus groups
is critical to identifying the most effective message, instructed
Barnett. It's important to take the fight to the people, but you
have to be on target with your message and not squander scarce
resources. It's rare, if not unheard of, for a campaign to have
too much money to spend.
"It's great to have a message and an idea but if you don't
have a vehicle or a means to get the word out, you're sunk. Dollars
are essentially the mother's milk of political battles. People
never have enough of dollars and they don't come in fast enough.
Talk to people at gun shows. Talk to people at your local gun
clubs. This will build your base of support and you'll have people
going out and carrying your message for you."
Resolutions Adopted
Resolution Committee members, John Hosford, Bob Wiest,
Dennis Walker and Ken Blanchard, brought up six resolutions submitted
by attendees. The first resolution reaffirmed support for a NATO
pact concept where an attack on one class or type of firearm or
firearms owner is considered an attack on all firearms and firearms
owners and should be fought will all resources available.
The second resolution requested that a special SAF/CCRKBA award
be named after Phil Wahlbom Jr., who had passed away shortly before
the GRPC. Wahlbom created the Marathon USA "Make A Call For
Freedom" program, whereby the communications company donates
a portion of the telephone billing to pro-gun organizations. To
date, Marathon has given tens of thousands of dollars to worthy
groups. The third resolution, quickly passed, supported the notion
of withholding funding and support of the United Nations until
it supports the liberties and rights of American citizens to keep
and bear arms.
After a lot of discussion and heated arguments, it was resolved
that Smith & Wesson products should be boycotted until they
repudiate their agreement with the government or go out of business,
whichever comes first. Some attendees brought up the fact there
was a de facto boycott already on so there was no need for the
resolution. Others suggested boycotting S&W's British parent
company, Tomkins PLC, while some suggestions were made for censure
in lieu of a boycott. The fifth resolution asked that SAF and
CCRKBA prepare an appropriate certificate of recognition and present
it to Patrick Feely, the man in Cincinnati, who after being arrested
for carrying a concealed firearm, decided to put his career and
personal freedom on the line by refusing to plea bargain.
The final resolution decided that it was in everybody's interest
to unite behind George W. Bush's bid for the White House. With
few dissenting comments, it passed handily. (The full text of
resolutions may be found on-line at www.saf.org.
Joseph Tartaro and Alan Gottlieb, leaders of the prime GRPC
sponsoring organizations-the Second Amendment Foundation and the
Citizens Committee for the Rights to Keep and Bear Arms-thanked
the companies and organizations that helped fund the GRPC, the
speakers who participated, and those who attended and provided
grass roots input from almost every state in the union. They then
closed the 2000 conference.
John Barnett reported that the final date and location for
the 2001 GRPC had not yet been finalized.
Our GRPC 2000 report is divided into sessions
for easier reading.
Click on the desired section to read.
|
September 29, 2000
|
September 30, 2000
|
October 1, 2000
|
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