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

“You’ve got to learn to deal with people on a rational basis and they will listen to you.”

Fight media bias
The next panel took aim at media bias with Malia Zimmerman, editor of the Hawaii Reporter. She told the audience that her newspaper is the “only conservative media in Hawaii.”

Zimmerman fights the bias by attending press conferences and asking questions about firearms and personal protection for women. She suggested contacting local reporters to invite them to shooting events or to hear stories about how firearms were used to save someone’s life. The ultimate purpose is to educate the press and build relationships with reporters to become a trustworthy source of information.

“The other side is really organized,” Zimmerman warned.

To combat that, she said it is important to talk to reporters and “give the other side of the story.”

Beyond that, contribute to a blog or write op-ed pieces for submission to local newspapers. Use the social media, including Facebook and other communications platforms.

Because of the Internet, she said the established press is losing its power, which translates to more ability for gunowners to get their stories in front of the public.

Charles Heller, host of Liberty Watch radio and America Armed and Free, told the audience that they need to challenge media errors. Use data from the FBI and Bureau of Justice Statistics, he advised, and build relationships with reporters.

“If you do that in a non-threatening way,” Heller said, “they will appreciate that you have given them a good source.”

He also noted that reporters like to have news literally handed to them, and he suggested providing short, one-page stories or ideas, which help journalists do their jobs. Heller also suggested providing reporters with a copy of John Lott’s The Bias Against Guns as a source book.

Taking over the microphone, Don Irvine, president of Accuracy in Media, acknowledged that ‘I think we all agree there is” a media bias. Irvine’s organization has been covering news for some 40 years.

Noting that the news media is no longer trusted by a large segment of the public, including Democrats, Irvine said The Washington Post has admitted there are few conservatives in the news room.

Like other panelists, Irvine recommended starting a blog, and taking advantage of the “social media,” which includes Facebook and Twitter. He called the latter a “wonderful tool” that can be used to connect to lots of people, including reporters.

Gun Week Senior Editor Dave Workman rounded out the panel, advising the audience against taking a combative posture toward reporters who make mistakes.

“You’ve got to learn to deal with people on a rational basis and they will listen to you,” he said.

One of a handful of “Gun Rights Examiners” on Examiner.com, Workman pointed to four of his Examiner colleagues in the audience. They utilize the Internet to offer opinions, report different news stories and provide alternate information.

He recommended sending reporters e-mails or calling them on the telephone and explaining where they make mistakes. He also cautioned against calling radio talk shows and spending too much time on the air.

“If you call a talk show,” he said, “make it terse, make your point and get off the air.”

Workman also encouraged the audience to become Gun Week subscribers.

Mexican drug wars
Chris Knox, communications director for the Firearms Coalition, told the audience that in his hometown of Phoenix, AZ, illegal immigration is almost considered normal. This human trafficking is a “serious issue” that has side effects, including kidnapping that is primarily “drug lord on drug lord, so it stays below the radar.”

The situation is also contributing to home invasion robberies, he said, and the “gangster on gangster” crime is threatening to spill across into normal society. The border drug war has become a major story, but he said it is open to speculation how that situation will play out.

Knox said some Mexican officials have come to the US and actually visited gun shows, but whether they are trying to mount a sting operation similar to that of Mayor Michael Bloomberg of New York is not yet known.

However, what is known is that crime involving illegals is on the rise, with human and drug trafficking being a “big problem” and the alleged traffic in guns heading south is equally threatening.

Knox said he is convinced there will one day be another revolution in Mexico.

Author David Kopel, senior policy analyst with the Independence Institute, explained the situation in the United States in comparison to South Africa. Both nations have firearms ownership and they border nations that are restrictive toward gun rights.

“We are continually in an international battle where the rights of one nation have an impact on the neighboring nations,” he said.

While Mexico may have a right to gun ownership in its constitution, Kopel said, the right is violated all of the time. That country has the kind of restrictive gun control laws that the Obama administration would like to see instituted here. Kopel recalled that one of Obama’s proposals when he ran for Congress was to ban gun shops anywhere within five miles of a school. Kopel called that idea almost impossible to enforce without putting gun stores out of business.

Mexico has one legal gun store in the whole country, in Mexico City and it is operated by the army, he said.

Kopel intimated that gun prohibition would be as difficult to enforce as drug and alcohol prohibition laws. He added that such laws contribute to gun-related violence. He said there is a parallel between drug and alcohol prohibition laws and gun control laws, and that they haven’t worked.

He advised the audience to prepare for a long fight on gun rights in this country.

Joe Waldron, legislative director for the Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms, and a member of the CCRKBA board, warned the audience that the Obama administration has taken control of banking, the auto industry and is now trying to control health care, so the next target over the horizon will likely be firearms.

“The operative word is control,” he said.

A former legislative lobbyist in Washington state, Waldron noted that rural Democrats will be under extreme pressure to vote along with the more liberal leadership on gun control issues, or face threats of vetoes on their legislation, or seeing it stall in committee.

He criticized the “lap dog media” for continuing to report falsely about the number of guns from this country showing up in Mexico. Waldron said gun grabbers need some excuse to push their agenda, and that the Mexican drug wars may provide that opportunity.
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