24th Annual Gun Rights Policy Conference
'Challenges Ahead'

Photos and Report by
Dave Workman
Senior Editor

Our GRPC 2009 report is divided into sessions for easier reading.
Click on the desired section to read.

September 26, 2009
September 27, 2009

“We all need to be better chess players.”

Government Czars
Curt Levey, executive director of the Committee for Justice, and SAF’s Gottlieb led a discussion on the Bill of Rights, the Supreme Court and government czars.

Levey’s group organized an effort to send a letter signed by several leading gun rights advocates to the US Senate in opposition to the nomination of Judge Sonia Sotomayor to the US Supreme Court. He warned that the balance on the high court is fragile, and that “all you need is for one of the five center-right justices to retire while Obama is still president, and Heller will be gutted if not overturned.”

He asserted that Sotomayor had “evinced a genuine hostility” toward the Second Amendment in her time on the 2nd Circuit Court of Appeals in New York, and that the letter in opposition to her nomination demonstrated the degree of concern about her in the gun rights community. That letter included the signatures of 15 National Rifle Association directors, including past President Sandra Froman and past President Bob Corbin.

The NRA did formally oppose Sotomayor’s nomination after the letter became public knowledge, and Levey gave the organization credit for making gun rights the “number one issue in the confirmation fight.” He said the NRA “played a big part” in assuring that opposition to the nomination grew in the Senate.

He said that when Sotomayor begins making bad Second Amendment rulings, politicians who supported her must be held accountable at the ballot box.

Gottlieb reminded the audience that President Obama now has the opportunity to literally stack the appeals courts with anti-gun federal judges. Many vacancies on the bench were left open during the last two years of the Bush administration because Democrats refused to allow Bush nominees to be confirmed. Those vacancies, and new positions on the courts, will now be filled by Obama with the help of a Democrat-controlled Senate.

Gottlieb’s organization sent some 16 million e-mails raising concerns among gunowners and conservatives over the Sotomayor nomination. As a result, he said more than 100,000 faxes were sent to the Senate, and the volume of mail caused two senators to change their FAX numbers.

He credited Froman with getting the Sotomayor letter signed by so many people, adding that if there had been more time, more signatures could have been secured.

Gottlieb closed out his remarks noting that there have been several gun rights victories in the courts in recent years, but there are still many challenges on the horizon.

Expanding Self-Defense
Expanding self-defense and right-to-carry laws were the subject of the next panel on the agenda. Judge Phil Journey, a former Kansas state senator who had pushed through much gun rights legislation, told the audience that a major problem faced by the gun rights movement is recruitment of new shooters.

“The heart and soul of the gun movement for the next 100 years is what we do to bring young people into the movement,” he said. “Somebody has got to carry the torch.”

Journey likened the movement to baseball, explaining that today’s shooters must “build the farm team” with younger gun rights activists who will be willing to run for local public office, and work up the ladder to higher office.

Being politically savvy is important, and working strategically is the key to winning these battles.

“There are two kinds of people in politics,” Journey said, “people who play checkers and people who play chess. We all need to be better chess players.”

He also reminded the audience that in politics, there are no enemies, only opponents. He lamented the struggle between “purists and pragmatists,” and it is the pragmatists who gain the small victories and build on them while “purists say it’s not 100 percent of what we want, so pffft.”

Jeff Knox, operations manager for the Firearms Coalition, recalled his father, Neal Knox, who learned one thing fast about politics. “Little politicians” grow up to be big politicians, meaning that people who start out at the local level can end up in much higher, more powerful positions later in their careers. Those individuals need to be contacted early in their careers, he suggested, in order to cultivate lasting relationships.

He also encouraged activists to choose their words carefully, noting that bans on campus carry should be equated with a ban on self-defense.

Brian Patrick, associate professor at the University of Toledo and author of Rise of the Anti-Media: In-Forming the American Concealed Weapon Carry Movement, said expansion of concealed carry has been a “sociological miracle.” He said the American gun culture has defied the social trend that has been going on for a thousand years.

Patrick mocked a flip chart that discussed different situations on campus including an “active shooter” incident that he gleaned from a state Department of Public Safety website.

In the best of all possible worlds, he said, there would be no “active shooters.” However, his suggestion for what advice should be given in such a flip chart would be to concentrate on the sights of your legally carried handgun and fighting back.

He also discussed the use of the Internet to promote the gun rights cause.

Hawaii State Sen. Sam Slom encouraged activists to “stay the course.” He suggested alluding to the “pro choice” philosophy, noting that women should have the choice to defend themselves and their families.

He encouraged gun activists to be role models, and predicted that “we are going to win, we are going to prevail.”

Knives and Ammunition
The final panel of the day discussed recent attacks on knives and ammunition at the state and federal level.

Scott Hattrup, executive director of the National Association of Arms Shows, discussed the history of knife laws and the Federal Switchblade Act of 1958. He said this law had roots in films in which hoodlums used knives inappropriately. As a result, the importation of switchblades was banned.

The anti-knife movement expanded to include martial arts knives, such as butterfly knives.

At the same time, states began considering ammunition regulations aimed at such things as so-called “armor piercing” rounds. He said bullet bans were ultimately driven by things portrayed in films which are fictional.

He warned that anti-gun prosecutors might go after sportsmen for having ammunition that technically violates a state statute.

Jake McGuigan, director of government affairs for the National Shooting Sports Foundation, stressed the importance of being united. He said the ammunition shortage earlier this year was the result of the political environment, and part of the problem has been the hoarding of ammunition which has contributed to shortages.

He discussed the push for bullet serialization, which has quieted down in recent months because the idea was defeated in every state where it was introduced.

He also reported that there is an increasing trend by anti-hunting groups to attack the use of lead in bullets. This is how such groups attack hunters, even though studies have indicated that the use of lead in bullets has had no health effect on hunters.

Doug Ritter, founder of Knife Rights Inc., reported that the Second Amendment also applies to knives and other arms. Knife owners, he said, deserve the same protection from bad laws as gunowners.

He said Knife Rights was founded three years ago to prevent the kind of onerous laws that have been imposed in other countries, such as Great Britain, where knives have been severely restricted.

Ritter noted that the recent flap involving US Customs and proposed regulations that threatened pocket knives is “a real threat.” The agency tried to adopt new restrictions in a way that was “sneaky and underhanded.”

But quick action with the US Senate derailed the effort by amendment to prevent the Customs agency from imposing the new regulations.

Finally, Ralph Walker, first vice president of the National Muzzle Loading Rifle Association, told the audience that lead, brass and powder are all under attack, and that if lead is banned, muzzleloaders are in trouble. California lawmakers have already prohibited the use of lead projectiles on millions of acres, and the National Park Service tried to adopt regulations banning lead sinkers.

“You can’t even carry a lead bullet through condor country,” he said. “California leads the way in doing really stupid stuff.”

There is a real problem with blackpowder in that there are no production facilities remaining in the United States, Walker said. It all has to be imported, and he said this is a bad situation for several reasons, not the least of which is that blackpowder is still used by the military.

Coming Next: Panel discussions on organized labor, media bias, the Mexican drug war, open carry, reciprocity and keeping your family safe.
Return to Table of Contents