A three-day weekend devoted to defending the Second Amendment kicked off in Salt Lake City, Utah on Friday, with the Alternative Mass Media Convention or simply AMM-Con. Charlie Cook of “Riding Shotgun with Charlie” was the Master of Ceremonies for that event that hosted approximately a hundred or so attendees and numerous guest speakers.
The AMM-Con audience primarily consisted of active and prospective writers and videographers in the 2A space with expert speakers in the field offering their professional advice. Some of these included Jarrad Markel who gave a presentation to aid writers in selling their work to potential customers. Professor Mark Smith offered scholarly insight into the current state of 2A Legislation and how to frame articles properly for that discussion. There was also a lively debate regarding the pros and cons of using AI in 2A journalism.
The Second Amendment Foundation’s 40th annual Gun Rights Policy Conference kicked off on Saturday. As usual, Alan Gottlieb, founder and Executive Vice President of SAF and the Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms welcomed hundreds of attendees who had traveled from all over the nation to be there.
Not surprisingly, there was a full battery of guest speakers who shared the stage at the GRPC to include Mark Walters of AAR who was the MC, Adam Kraut, Exec. Director of SAF, AWR Hawkins of Breitbart Media, Cam Edwards of Cam & Company, Massad Ayoob, Pres. of SAF as well as nearly twenty others.
Very special guests included Sara Weaver, daughter of Randy and Vicki Weaver, who sat for a “fireside chat” with Mr. Walters. Christian Craighead, the hero of the 2019 terrorist attack in Nairobi, Kenya and a retired SAS operator, was on hand to share his experience and drive home the importance of citizen gun ownership in the United States, a privilege denied to the vast majority of people around the world.
It should be noted that GRPC is open to any and all comers, not just industry members. The atmosphere is tremendously welcoming. Those in attendance were given not only complementary water and coffee, but lunch each day and there were receptions held both Friday and Saturday night with a generous spread of food. This wouldn’t have been possible without the sponsorship cooperation from numerous manufacturers in the shooting sports industry who included: Silencer Shop, Trijicon, Vortex, Taurus USA, Volquartsen, 2A Bourbon, Arizona Firearms Auctions, CZ USA, US Law Shield, GrabAGun, and Attorneys on Retainer. Events such as the GRPC are extremely detailed and they cost a considerable amount of money. Without these industry partners, the event couldn’t happen.
Additionally, I would be remiss — and I hate being remiss — if I did not acknowledge all the hard work of the SAF staff members and volunteers who worked tirelessly to make it all happen. I can’t thank them enough.
Regardless of the individual topics that were presented on stage, it shouldn’t be lost or taken for granted that such an event, where any citizen can attend and mingle with subject matter experts and 2A advocates is not only very special, but something that couldn’t happen anywhere but the United States of America.
The theme of this year’s GRPC was “Advocacy through Action” and numerous speakers took to the podium to share their success stories as well as advice and guidelines for American citizens to promote our God given right to keep and bear arms, even in hard core blue areas like California. For instance, Michael Schwartz of San Diego County Gun Owners shared the success of his organization in getting the local Sheriff to issue CCW permits and in getting pro-2A politicians elected.
We are living in a time when not only are citizens of the world being abused by criminals and terrorists, they are being severely abused by their governments. In the United Kingdom there is no 2A, but there is also no such thing as 1st Amendment or Free Speech rights. Everyday, the citizens of the UK are terrorized and abused by their own government for speaking words contrary to the opinion of their state masters.
While it should be obvious, I will say it anyway…the only reason why American citizens aren’t being arrested and jailed for “offensive” social media posts or praying in public is because we have a Bill of Rights, the two most important Amendments being numbers One and Two. Both of these are under constant attack by deeply entrenched government bureaucrats and their sycophantic minions in the media.
My take-away from the theme of Advocacy through Action is that being on the defensive and waiting for our God-given rights to be attacked is a loser’s strategy. We need to be proactive and put those who would strip us of our rights on notice that we are united, organized, and are not simply going to stand by and watch the United States of America deteriorate into the state of tyranny as have so many countries who we once considered allies have.
It is not hyperbole to say that, as our Founding Father once opined, the time is now to “Join or Die.” We can unite and stay vigilant or lose our liberty thus ensuring that our posterity will live under a state of government tyranny. The decision is yours.
“… the only reason why American citizens aren’t being arrested and jailed for ‘offensive’ social media posts or praying in public is because we have a Bill of Rights, the two most important Amendments being numbers One and Two.”
I disagree. The only reason that state governments and fedzilla are not arresting U.S. citizens en-masse (for “offensive” social media posts and praying in public) is because Trump won the Oval Office and appointed dozens/hundreds of conservative-minded government employees who actually support our U.S. Constitution’s First and Second Amendments.
Make no mistake, state and federal governments WERE coming for conservative minded people via private industry cancel-culture as well as bogus arrests with kangaroo courts/trials. If you care to look, you can find countless examples where that occurred. And if you don’t care to look, review the multiple civil and criminal trials of Trump himself.
Our nation’s Framers knew first hand that governments could become despotic and would only relent when forcefully repelled. THAT is why they wrote the Second Amendment–as a last resort when all else fails to restore decency.
Remember when that California pastor was arrested for holding in-person church services during the COVID lockdown scare? They threw the Bill of Rights out at the first chance they got.
Liquor stores were classified as essential businesses and were allowed to remain open throughout the lockdowns. They respected your “right” to get drunk. Priorities. Governors did whatever they wanted to do as they cracked down on their citizens just trying to go about daily business. Newsom and Whitmer knew they would never have to pay a price for their extreme hypocrisy.
BTW, those wannabe tyrants will be running for the Democrat presidential nomination. Democrats will say, “more please!”