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

“The union movement is an important movement, and if we ignore it entirely we are missing something,”

Unions and Gun Rights
True to the theme “Challenges Ahead,” the 2009 Gun Rights Policy Conference (GRPC) put its spotlight on dealing with labor unions, media bias, the administration’s attempt to push gun control by capitalizing on the Mexican drug war, and other looming challenges.

There were also discussions about open carry at high-profile public gatherings, reciprocity and family safety as the St. Louis, MO, conference concluded on Sept. 27.

Second Amendment Foundation President Joseph Tartaro, executive editor of Gun Week, led the first panel on “Labor Pains and Gun Rights,” noting that there is a misconception that union members and gunowners are completely separate. Too many people, he suggested, have a misconception that union members reflexively support only Democrat candidates.

However, Tartaro noted that international union leadership has often been monolithic in its attempts to guide the votes of their members toward Democratic candidates.

He acknowledged that union leaders have been, in many cases, anti-gun while touting the argument that they are all hunters, so they are not against gun rights.

“They always equate hunting with the Second Amendment,” he observed. “They suggest that if you support the gun rights movement you cannot be for conservation.”

Tartaro said the attitude smacks of elitism. He recalled that a few years ago, several unions tried to establish the Union Sportsman’s Alliance, which they tried to finesse with the acronym “USA” as a patriotic effort as well as a conservation group.

“The object was to say they were not anti-gun, they were pro-Second Amendment,” he said.

Tartaro also recalled how Democrat John Kerry, during the 2004 campaign, tried to pass himself off as a hunter in an attempt to garner support from gunowners. He urged union members to bring up the gun issue at local meetings, and encourage other union members who are hunters to learn more about the gun issue.

“The union movement is an important movement, and if we ignore it entirely we are missing something,” he said.

Following Tartaro to the microphone, veteran union member Jim Church, a Michigan gun rights activist and former member of the National Rifle Association board of directors, told the audience that “you can’t be anti-gun and pro-labor.” That message was silk-screened onto his T-shirt.

“Now there are scores of politicians who think you can be,” he said, “and I would suggest that if they are truly anti-gun it’s because they are elitists, as anti-gunners tend to be, and labor is supposedly fighting elitism in the workplace.”

Church said politicians and labor leaders need to be educated, and that “labor seems to be forgetting the history of their struggle.”

“I have a hard time with anybody whose politics do not reflect the history of their struggle,” he said.

Church compared that with Jewish anti-gunners who forget the Holocaust, and reminded the audience that gun control started in the South to keep blacks under control and in the northeast to keep immigrants under control. He said gun control was popular with “fat-cat robber baron industrialist Republicans who did not want their work force to unionize.”

Today, he noted, “Being a pro-gun Democrat is about as close to invincible as you can get in elective politics.”

Concluding the panel was New Yorker John Cushman, a long-time union member and currently an NRA director, who has been active in the Teamsters’ Union for several years. He said perception is “the name of the game” and noted that no union wants to be perceived as being willing to sacrifice your constitutional rights just to get a couple of extra dollars into your paycheck.”

Cushman recalled how he would attend local union meetings and ask questions including how politicians or union leaders felt about the Second Amendment. He urged the audience to challenge politicians on the Second Amendment.

“You rank and file can, should, must make a difference every single time,” he said.

Cushman advised union members to “make the conversation your conversation,” at local meetings, and be willing to ask questions.

“If you sit on a sideline in a union,” he advised, “speak up.”
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