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Gun Rights Policy Conference 2013

September 16, 2013 by

The time for the 2013 Gun Rights Policy Conference is fast approaching. It is scheduled for September 27th through 29th in Houston, Texas at the Marriott Hotel near the George Bush Intercontinental Airport. I had hoped to go to this year’s GRPC as I have attended the past three. However, personal finances being personal finances, I had to decide between going to GRPC or going to a conference in October that should help me business-wise.

If you are in the Houston area or within driving distance, I can recommend it. The speakers are excellent but it is really the people from around the country who are active in the gun rights movement that make the conference. I’ve made lifelong friends from the people that I’ve met at the past conferences. If you can’t swing a full weekend, go on Saturday as that is the main day.

More details below in the Second Amendment Foundation’s release:



BELLEVUE, WA – U.S. Representative Steve Stockman (R-TX) will be among the speakers later this month at the 2013 Gun Rights Policy Conference at the Marriott Hotel Houston, Tex. Airport hotel, an event that will also feature several national gun rights leaders. Congressman Stockman will speak during the annual luncheon on Sept. 28.


Also on the schedule are Emily Miller, senior opinion editor at the Washington Times and author of the just released Emily Gets Her Gun…But Obama Wants to Take Yours; attorney Alan Gura, winner of both the Heller and McDonald Second Amendment cases before the U.S. Supreme Court; John Fund, national affairs columnist at National Review Online and senior editor at The American Spectator, and John Lott, author of the landmark More Guns = Less Crime and a Fox News.com contributor.


The conference is jointly sponsored by the Second Amendment Foundation and Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms. This is the 28th annual GRPC.


The 2013 GRPC will feature more than 60 speakers on subjects ranging from politics to personal protection. The weekend event typically attracts more than 500 gun owners, activists and experts from across the country. Attendance is free, and on-line registration is available at www.saf.org.


WHO: National gun rights leaders


WHAT: Speaking at the 28th annual Gun Rights Policy Conference


WHEN: Saturday, Sept. 28, 2013


WHERE: Marriott Hotel Houston, Tex. Airport, 18700 John F. Kennedy Blvd., Houston, Tex.


The Second Amendment Foundation (www.saf.org) is the nation’s oldest and largest tax-exempt education, research, publishing and legal action group focusing on the Constitutional right and heritage to privately own and possess firearms. Founded in 1974, The Foundation has grown to more than 650,000 members and supporters and conducts many programs designed to better inform the public about the consequences of gun control. In addition to the landmark McDonald v. Chicago Supreme Court Case, SAF has previously funded successful firearms-related suits against the cities of Los Angeles; New Haven, CT; New Orleans; Chicago and San Francisco on behalf of American gun owners, a lawsuit against the cities suing gun makers and numerous amicus briefs holding the Second Amendment as an individual right.

Online registration is available here.

And remember, the conference is free. All you have to pay is your travel and lodging.

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In Des Moines On Tuesday

September 15, 2013 by

If you live in Iowa or will be in the Des Moines area on Tuesday, Second Amendment scholar David Young will be giving a Constitution Day speech on the Second Amendment at Des Moines Area Community College, Ankeny Campus.

From David’s blog:

It is my understanding that there will be two speakers on this date. The first, Prof. Steffen Schmidt, a political science professor at Iowa State University, will speak at 10:30 AM in the auditorium in Building 6.

My one hour presentation will be outside the southeast facing main entrance of Building 5 on the DMACC Ankeny Campus at 11:30 AM, September 17, 2013. The presentation will emphasize Second Amendment historical development and why its purpose naturally has such an extensive impact on the current gun control controversy.

I have rarely given public presentations on this subject. My plan at Ankeny is to provide considerable time for questions and answers. For anyone interested in an eye-opening presentation on the Second Amendment’s purpose based on my most recent research into Founding Era sources, don’t miss this. Please let your friends and other interested parties know about the event.

More info and a link to a map can be found here.

I have both of David’s books and had a chance to chat with him at the Gun Rights Policy Conference held in Chicago in 2011. He is a nice guy who knows his topic. If I lived in Iowa, I’d be at that presentation.

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Ginny Simone On The Colorado Recall Elections

September 13, 2013 by 2 Comments

In the piece below from Ginny Simone of NRA News, you can hear the grassroots activists like Victor Head of Pueblo Freedom and Rights explain what they did on Tuesday. They organized, they worked, and they overcame a tidal wave of outside money to recall two state senators who not only ignored the wishes of their constituents but didn’t even want to hear them.

If you want to hear more from the organizers of the recall, listen to Shooter Ready Radio this afternoon/evening. I know a number of the organizers will be guests on the program. You can listen live on the radio as well as the internet. Details are here.

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Dave Kopel’s Take On The Recall Election Results

September 11, 2013 by

Second Amendment attorney Dave Kopel has a very interesting analysis on the results of the Colorado recall elections at the Volokh Conspiracy. He, like I, thought Giron might survive and Morse ousted given the nature of their districts.

So why did Angela Giron lose in her heavily Democratic, blue collar, union stronghold of a district? According to Dave, it is because she crossed the double-red line of Colorado politics. It wasn’t just that she voted against gun rights but that she, as chairperson of the Senate State Affairs Committee, shut out the testimony of many of those who wanted to testify. Colorado has a tradition of letting everyone who wants to speak on a bill the chance to testify, if only for a few moments.

Dave concludes:

The Second Amendment right to keep and bear arms was the secondmost important reason why Morse and Giron were removed from office. The first reason was the Fifth and Fourteenth Amendment principle of Due Process of Law. The opportunity to be heard is the fundamental to Due Process of Law, and not solely in adjudications. When Morse and Giron squelched the testimony of law-abiding citizens and of law-enforcing Sheriffs, they grossly abused their constitutional office of being law-makers. And so, for abuse of office, John Morse and Angela Giron have been recalled from office by the People of Colorado, to be replaced by legislators who will listen before the vote.

Read the whole analysis here. It is well worth reading and worth sending to your representatives as a warning of what happens when they won’t even take the time to listen.

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Comment Of The Day

September 11, 2013 by 1 Comment



The comment of the day comes from a post I did early this morning. Chris Wiggins, co-host of Shooter Ready Radio, and a resident of Pueblo, Colorado gives his explanation of the outcome of the recall elections in Colorado.

Despite what the polls and the party leaders said, I never doubted we would win. If you had been in that first town hall meeting with Giron in March, where we packed a small library with thousands of pro-gun supporters, it was palpable. Initially, the Republican party, the NRA and Rocky Mountain Gun Owners doubted that a recall was even possible. Fortunately, the NRA and GOP had a change of heart, but they obviously weren’t at that first town hall meeting–where we saw the beginning of true activist patriotism in this county. This is and always has been a grass roots movement. It was never about party or about realpolitik, it was only about the Second Amendment.

Chris’ show airs on Friday afternoons from 4pm until 6pm Mountain Time. You can listen to it on a number of stations in the Pueblo and Colorado Springs area or on the interwebs. I think this Friday’s show should have some interesting discussions on the recall elections. As an aside, Chris just so happened to schedule me as a guest on the show before we even knew the outcome.

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Oh, My God! They Did It In Colorado

September 11, 2013 by 4 Comments

When I went to bed last night here in the East, it was early in Colorado and the recall votes were still being counted. Sen. Angela Giron (D-Pueblo) was slightly ahead with just a few votes in and Senate President John Morse (D-Colorado Springs) was behind with a total of about 12,500 votes counted. I fully expected to wake up this morning to hear it ended up as a split – Giron surviving and Morse out.

The news was so much better – both Giron and Morse are out of office.

Not only was I surprised that both were gone but Giron lost by a larger margin in her heavily Democratic district than did Morse in a district where he had only marginally won in earlier elections.

With 100% of the vote in, the results were as reported in the Denver Post:

Ballot Issue State Senate 3 - Recall Giron
100% reporting

Yes     56.0%          (19,355)
No      43.9%          (15,201) 

Ballot Issue State Senate 11 - Recall Morse
100% reporting

Yes     50.9%          (9,094)
No      49.0%          (8,751)

The results are a clear win for the grassroots, for gun rights, and for basic freedoms. They are also a loss for Mayor Bloomberg, in particular, and for the elites in the press, politics, and the gun prohibition movement, in general. None of this would have to come to be if Morse and Giron had not so arrogantly dismissed the concerns of their own constituents which, in turn, pissed off the Victor Heads and Tim Knights of Colorado enough to do something about it.

This historic recall was grassroots politics at its finest.

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Interesting “Partners”

September 10, 2013 by

I was checking out the Colorado Springs TV stations to see how they were playing the recall election of Senate President John Morse (D-Colorado Springs. One of the stations I checked was KKTV Channel 11. They are the local CBS affiliate in Colorado Springs.

At the bottom of the page of a story about how redistricting was causing some voter confusion at the polls in the recall election, KKTV had a set of links entitled More From Our Partners. The lead story in this category was about the new voter ID law in North Carolina. It was from “DGA”. Following the link I found that DGA stands for the Democratic Governors Association and the article was accusing Gov. Pat McCrory of backing “voter suppresion.” The link is gone now as they have rotating links. However, you can still see it in the screen cap shown below.

You have to wonder if this same station would consider the Republican Governors Association as their “partner” and include links to its “news” stories. Frankly, I don’t want my local TV station to consider either party as their “partner”. I want them to report the news without a slant. At least with KKTV the curtains have been pulled aside a bit and their bias can be seen.

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Quotes Of The Day

September 10, 2013 by

The Gazette of Colorado Springs seems to get Senate President John Morse (D-Colorado Springs) and his motivation. At least that is the impression I get from reading this editorial in yesterday’s edition. The editorial discusses Morse and his purported liberal leanings. They note that the Marijuana Policy Project, a leading organization pushing for the legalization of pot, has named Morse their “#1 worst state legislator in the United States” for trying to sneak a bill through the legislature that would have, in effect, repealed Colorado’s voter-approved initiative on marijuana. The Gazette says that Morse is not a liberal but an authoritarian politician.

Liberals in Colorado’s 11th Senate District should understand that Morse is not a genuine liberal. Rather, he governs as an equal-opportunity authoritarian.


That’s why he may become the first state politician in Colorado history to be recalled.

And the second quote from the editorial which really summarizes what this recall election is all about.

This recall isn’t a battle of right versus left, conservative versus liberal. It’s a citizen effort to end the reign of a politician who views the public – even his most liberal constituents – as fodder for the elite political class in Washington, Denver and New York.