For the first time in its history, the annual Gun Rights Policy Conference—hosted jointly by the Second Amendment Foundation and Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms—will convene entirely online this Saturday and Sunday, Sept. 19-20, with more than 120 speakers, making it the biggest agenda in the event’s 35-year run.
According to Alan Gottlieb, SAF founder and executive vice president, more than 2,200 people have pre-registered for the conference. It will be presented on several different platforms.
To pre-register for the event, go to www.saf.org/grpc/.
While the conference will be streamed on several platforms including YouTube and Facebook Live, you must pre-register in order to receive the FREE Digital Second Amendment Library, Gottlieb noted.
This year’s conference theme is “Elect Freedom,” and it could not be more timely. This weekend’s jam-packed agenda includes 32 panel discussions covering such subjects as federal and state legislative affairs, grassroots activism, suicide prevention, legal actions in defense of the Second Amendment, media and corporate attacks on the right to keep and bear arms, women’s issues, advancing the run rights message, and much more. There will also be a panel memorial honoring the late Joseph Tartaro, SAF president and longtime executive editor of TheGunMag.com. Mr. Tartaro spent more than 50 years involved in the gun rights movement and was a pioneer in Second Amendment activism.
In addition to Gottlieb, this year’s speakers include National Shooting Sports Foundation President Joe Bartozzi; Jason Ouimet, executive director of the NRA Institute for Legislative Action; Erich Pratt, Gun Owners of America; Tom Gresham, host of Gun Talk radio; Mark Walters, host of Armed American radio; Charlie Cook, host of Riding Shotgun with Charlie; and Jim Shepherd, editor at The Outdoor Wire.
Among the scheduled special appearances will be U.S. Senators Steve Daines (R-MT) and Thom Tillis (R-NC), Louisiana Congressman Steve Scalise, Alaska Congressman Don Young and Olympic Gold Medalist Kim Rhode.
Underscoring the importance of voting this year is a Saturday presentation titled “Elections Have RKBA Consequences,” with Matt and Mercedes Schlapp. Matt is chairman of the American Conservative Union. Mercedes served as White House director of Strategic Communications in the Trump administration until July, when she began working on the Trump 2020 re-election campaign.
“With the crucial 2020 presidential and congressional elections less than two months away, this year’s event has added importance for gun rights activists across the country,” Gottlieb said. “Since the first GRPC was held in Seattle in 1986, the event has evolved from 20 speakers and 70 attendees to more than 90 speakers and 1,100 attendees in 2019. The GRPC has become a ‘must attend’ event for gun rights advocates and grassroots activists across the country.”
Putting the conference entirely online this year was no small undertaking. Originally scheduled to be held in Orlando, Fla., the conference had to moved entirely online event to the continuing coronavirus pandemic.
Gun rights are legitimately on the line with the November election, Gottlieb has noted. Democrat Joe Biden has made his gun control agenda clear from the outset. He wants to ban so-called “assault weapons” and “high-capacity” magazines, repeal the Protection of Lawful Commerce in Arms Act that prevents harassment lawsuits against firearm manufacturers and dealers, instill one-gun-per-month restrictions, mandate so-called “universal background checks” and more.
“This weekend’s conference will be an awesome event,” Gottlieb predicted, “and gun owners from coast to coast can virtually attend.”
