Mark your calendar for the Gun Rights Policy Conference (GRPC) the last weekend of September. The event runs Sept. 24 to Sept. 26, and will be held in San Francisco. (Yes, for gun owners’ civil rights activists, that’s a little like having a freedom conference in Teheran. The “behind enemy lines” theme will continue next year, when the conference is likely to take place in Chicago.)

You’ll meet hundreds of like-minded people, and representatives of virtually all the legitimate pro-gun organizations, including the vitally important state-level grassroots groups that get so much of the real work done in the state legislatures, and winning hearts and minds community by community.

It’s an extremely cost-effective experience. Travel and lodging and such are on you, but attendance is FREE OF CHARGE! Leave plenty of empty space in your luggage, because you’ll be issued lots of useful literature: professional journals written by learned scholars, thoroughly researched books, lots of ammunition to use in future debates when arguing for your rights. Hundreds of dollars worth of solidly documented research – ALL FREE OF CHARGE.

The event comes to you courtesy of the Second Amendment Foundation, and is the brainchild of Alan Gottlieb and Joe Tartaro.  It was Second Amendment Foundation that brought you the twin civil rights SCOTUS decisions of the 21st Century, Heller v. District of Columbia and McDonald v. City of Chicago, that have done so much to quantify and solidify our Constitutional rights. Expect to meet McDonald and his co-plaintiffs, and Heller, and Alan Gura, the brilliant young attorney who argued both of those cases to their successful, landmark conclusions.

In the interest of total disclosure, I can say proudly that I’ve served on the Second Amendment Foundation’s board of trustees for more than a score of years. I hope to meet you there. More info can be found HERE.

1 COMMENT

  1. I’m not going to San Francisco. No way, no how.

    Like the SHOT show, I think it should be someplace friendly – Florida, Utah, Vermont, Arizona. . .

  2. Mas, if SAF is not making a buck on conference, then what about them streaming the meeting on the web? Although us folks who can’t attend would not get the literature you mentioned, it would still be a reach to a 10x audience.

  3. Awful long haul from the midwest. If it is in Chicago I’ll go endure time behind enemy lines. I’m in the free and great state of Indiana but 20 min. from downtown Chicago.

    No doubt CPD will pull me over every other mile to look for weapons. As if out-of-state drivers have nothing better to do than to sneak arms into their alledged gun free socialist paradise.”Papers, please.”

  4. Mas, why are these conferences held in cities/states where the politicians and laws are so anti second amendment? Why not hold these conferences in places that are pro second amendment thereby giving a boost to those economies? Is there anything gained by holding them in California or Chicago?
    Thanks!

  5. Sounds like a great event and a perfect opportunity to test California’s no loaded open carry law. Which is obviously unconstitutional under the 2nd Amendment of the Federal Constitution….Remember, we are one heart valve failure away from our gun rights ending to just having a handgun inside the home.

    Oh, I volunteer for the task….But would rather go into a jurisdiction where there is no open carry and challenge that. Put your money where your mouth is people.

    For some reason, the NRA and these gun groups are shying away from challenging licensing requirements. Not for concealed carry, but for open carry, which unlike concealed carry is protected under “bear arms” in the 2nd Amendment of the Federal Constitution. Licensing of a right is already settled case law.

    U.S. Supreme Court

    319 U.S. 105 (1943)
    MURDOCK
    v.
    COMMONWEALTH OF PENNSYLVANIA
    and seven other cases, including
    JONES v. CITY OF OPELIKA, 319 U.S. 105 (1943)

    “It is contended, however, that the fact that the license tax can suppress or control this activity is unimportant [319 U.S. 105, 113] if it does not do so. But that is to disregard the nature of this tax. It is a license tax – a flat tax imposed on the exercise of a privilege granted by the Bill of Rights. A state may not impose a charge for the enjoyment of a right granted by the federal constitution.”

  6. Sadly, I won’t be attending either. It’d be quite a drive and the location isn’t that appealing.

    For me the drive alone isn’t that big of a deal but coupled with the fact that I can’t legally carry there has me reluctantly skipping this conference. I can definitely understand why places like San Francisco or Chicago are chosen, however, I’m just going to politely skip those places.

    Like Suburban said above me, it would be nice if there were conferences in more friendly places but I suppose that would kind of defeat the purpose.

    I really hope all you good folks attending are extra careful out there. I can’t think of a more unfriendly gun city than San Francisco….well maybe Berkeley…

  7. San Francisco, were the meeting rooms at UC Berkeley already full. I would love to attend but I avoid Kalifornia like the plague.

  8. Mike, me being a Luddite and all, I can’t be sure they’re NOT streaming it. Drop them an email, attention Dave Workman or Alan Gottlieb, with your question and suggestion.

    Karen, I get a sense that it’s sort of an act of defiance and a show of solidarity with those who don’t share the freedoms you and I do. But I suspect that will be articulated better by the SAF folk, and I’ll quote it here when I hear it there.

    best,
    Mas

  9. Hi Mas!

    I appreciate your response! I thought about the location a bit more and I do agree that I think it is a bit of defiance but also a chance to bring some new perspective to people who would otherwise not be open to it. I’ve read recently that overall crime is down across America. Of course the media had no explanation but I wondered if the increase in legally licensed carry holders had an affect in the decrease in crime.

    I hope that people in California and Illinois are open to some reaonable and well thought out perspectives on the 2nd Amendment.

    I think it interesting that when you look up the term ‘Liberal’ in Webster’s dictionary it describes liberal as ‘a man of free birth’. Yet today’s Liberals are all about removing freedom and individuality and replacing it with a centralized Federal power with control over every aspect of their lives and removing from individuals their Natural Rights of Private Property and Self Defense. The USA is a citizen state. Each legal and law abiding citizen has rights but also a duty to uphold the state. I think that is why the first ten ammendments to the Constitution were written. To ensure the USA is a citizen state.
    Karen

  10. You got it, Karen.

    But The People in California and Illinois are very much open to excersizing their constitutionally protected right to Keep and Bear arms. It’s the “public servants” who are bent on depriving them of the means to excersize their 2nd Amendment rights.

    Mas, I just want you to know how much I appreciate all that you do on behalf of your fellow Countrymen. Much thanks, for not only keeping us informed, but for all you do out there on the front lines where the battle is being fought.

    And many thanks to the others at the Second Amendment Foundation.

    John Chick
    Monmouth, ME

    “If a nation expects to be ignorant and free in a state of civilization, it expects what never was and never will be.” –Thomas Jefferson to Charles Yancey, 1816. ME 14:384

  11. Doublespeak, Karen, right out of Orwell. In Europe liberal still has the original meaning. Similarly, how can proponents of Socialism call themselves “progressives” when the idea has been an historical and theoretical failed concept since the late 1800s?

    At least “stimulus package” is a double entendre.

  12. The cost of air fair- round trip, ground transportation, hotel, tips etc. Probably about $700. Why not just send them a check for that amount?
    They should have these in a more centralized location, maybe MO? Having them in a hostile area seems to make sense at first but, do the liberals really care?
    Randy

  13. As a ‘liberal’, I can tell you that not ALL liberals are anti-carry. I can also say that people on both sides of this argument can be some of the most idiotic humans I’ve ever met! As when I went to hunting class, peace symbol in full display (the only vegetarian ever to attend) to learn, help the overpopulation of deer, feed people and educate by quiet example, I think going into SF could be an awesome education for the people there – they will get to see that gun toters are also human – not beer swiggin’, wimmin grabbin’, cousin marryin’…. well, you know the stereotype. I live in one of the most liberal areas outside of SF. I see the most red-necked, moral-less, bigoted fools in existence every day toting their unruly spoiled children to their open-to-all whites-only-attend groups with their eyes wide shut to the rest of humanity. Both sides can be fools. I think the SF location is brilliant. Maybe by example we can get back to the basic rights the Constitution guaranteed us (and maybe it’ll trickle-down and we could regain the right to carry – even in this berg!).