Pro-Gun Unity, Strategic Plans Only a Part of Annual GRPC
September 20, 2002

by Joseph P. Tartaro
Executive Editor

As the 17th annual Gun Rights Policy Conference (GRPC) in Phoenix draws near, and I continue to finalize the speakers and agenda, I find myself looking back over previous conferences, and the times in which they were held.

Time seems like water. It flows in one direction, and—like water—while it all seems to look and feel the same, it isn’t.

People like to say that the more things change, the more they remain the same. But that’s not true. Each small period of a few years takes on a different character from the similar time periods that come before or after.

The times are different, even over a total span of 17 years. Events are different. People are different. There are different national leaders, different public attitudes and different vectors acting on our social and political environment. You can’t predict what will happen, but you can bet on change. The Jimmy Carter years were different from the Ronald Reagan years, and the Bill Clinton years were different from both.

Antis on the Prowl
The anti-gunners were on the prowl in all of those administrations, but events helped change the actions of Congress and state houses across the country. John Hinckley’s attempt to assassinate Reagan had a delayed impact. While the injured Reagan shunted aside the gun-grabber agenda in 1981 with his own pro-gun remarks, the roots of Clinton’s Brady Act and 1994 Crime Bill had been laid in the assassination attempt, and were nurtured for a dozen years.

There are probably quite a few students of the struggle for the right to keep and bear arms who don’t see the connection between their victory in the 1982 California handgun freeze referendum and their loss in the passage of those two federal anti-gun bills in 1993 and 1994. Perhaps the most significant shift was in the position of the leadership of the law enforcement community.

Firearms civil rights activists who basked in the defeat of the California proposal and relaxed under the apparent protection of the Reagan years were surprised when the new machinegun ban was tacked onto the Volkmer-McClure bill in 1986. And just as the waiting period proposal was first advanced long before Hinckley’s heinous act, the seeds of the Firearm Owners Protection Act were sown in an earlier era.

As you look back at the last 17 years, you see how Patrick Purdy and the January 1989 Stockton, CA, schoolyard massacre, for instance, changed the political landscape. And 10 years later, the Littleton, CO, school shooting changed it again.

Meanwhile, other people and events came into play, even within the pro-gun community.

Need for Unity
Consider, for instance, that the National Rifle Association (NRA), the nation’s largest pro-gun organization, has had several different executive vice presidents (EVP) during that time. Ray Arnett, who succeeded Harlon Carter in 1985 as NRA-EVP, was replaced by J. Warren Cassidy in 1986, about the time that Alan Gottlieb and I were planning the first annual GRPC in Bellevue, WA, in 1986. Wayne LaPierre, who has been NRA-EVP for many years now, was then head of the NRA’s Institute for Legislative Action (ILA).

LaPierre was as aware of the bickering and conflicts within the pro-gun community as Gottlieb and I, and he was immediately receptive to the idea of a single national conference—open to all—where leadership of all the national pro-gun organizations could meet with the leaders of state and regional gun groups and grass roots activists to review events of the past year and to explore strategies for the future.

LaPierre attended the first GRPC in Washington state, and the second in Buffalo, NY, the next year. So did Larry Pratt of Gun Owners of America (GOA), and Neal Knox of the Firearms Coalition.

Neither LaPierre nor Pratt nor Knox nor anyone else seemed disappointed that only about 70 activists turned out for the first GRPC, and about 100 for the second. So much was accomplished at the first two events, and the networking that took place in an informal and unified agenda was so enriching, that they knew bigger things were coming.

That’s probably why, when more than 200 attended the next GRPC held in Dallas in 1988, and even more came each succeeding year, they also were not surprised. Major political figures—people like Attorney General Richard Thornburg, Sens. Jim McClure, Larry Craig, Bob Smith and Ben Nighthorse Campbell, and Reps. Bob Barr, Adam Smith, Jack Metcalf, and Helen Chenowith—also attended.

Two years ago, for instance, before most people had heard about the Emerson case, Dr. Timothy Joe Emerson’s attorney appeared at a GRPC and enthralled attendees with his explanation of the case and its importance to the gun rights movement.

The annual GRPCs have also been forums for other organizations—like the American Civil Liberties Union—and for pro-gun attorneys and pro-gun representatives of the entertainment industry.

Most of all, the GRPCs have served as incubators in which many new grassroots organizations have been born and where so many grassroots leaders have come away renewed, often enriched with new ideas.

The number attending the GRPCs has grown steadily over the years and reached a peak of over 500 last year in spite of the fact that the conference was held near the Cincinnati-Northern Kentucky Airport starting just 10 days after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. Those attacks stunned Americans and ushered in a whole new era, with many Americans discovering what most people in the gun rights movement knew all along: the government cannot protect you.

On the day of the attacks, Americans across the country rushed to buy ammunition, guns and other defensive and survival supplies. And on the same day, the Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms (CCRKBA)—co-sponsor with the Second Amendment Foundation (SAF) of the annual GRPCs—issued a public call for arming pilots. That call has been taken up by all pro-gun organizations and a majority of pilots, travelers, and members of the House of Representatives.

A new facet of the long public policy debate over firearms was thrust upon us by terrorists, and the issue is still very current as the Senate returns to work. The arming of pilots and other aspects of the gun rights debate—including the threat to civil liberties created by the government’s attempt to provide greater national security—will be among the issues on this year’s GRPC agenda.

Registrations Still Open
The full agenda and list of speakers for the 17th annual GRPC in Phoenix Sept. 27-29 is still in progress as this column is being written. However, there is still time to register for the conference by phone (425-4454-4911), fax (425-451-3959) or e-mail (GRPC2002@saf.org). Some walk-in registrations will be accepted each day.

Perhaps the greatest measure of the value of the annual GRPCs can be measured by what happened last year. Immediately after Sept. 11, air travel was shut down, but we received numerous calls from gunowners everywhere asking us not to cancel the GRPC as was happening with various other events. We didn’t cancel, and SAF and CCRKBA staff made plans to drive to Cincinnati, if the planes were not flying.

As things turned out, we didn’t have to drive, but many people did. And, in spite of a few cancellations, the 2001 GRPC ended up with a record attendance. Some speakers, such as LaPierre and David Kopel of the Independence Institute, had to make some difficult last-minute travel changes, but they were there.

As we expect them to be in Phoenix again at the end of September, along with Pratt, Knox, Gottlieb, myself and a number of others, providing another great benefit of the GRPC: a chance for attendees to speak with them one-on-one through the unique networking opportunity that the conference presents.