My Presentation At GRPC 2016

I was invited to be a speaker at the 2016 Gun Rights Policy Conference that was held this past weekend in Tampa, Florida. Like last year, the panel topic was using New Media to Advance Gun Rights.

Below is the draft that I planned to present before I had to start cutting for time.

Hi. I’m John Richardson.


I blog at the gun blog No Lawyers – Only Guns and Money and have done so since 2010.


Last year when I spoke on using new media to advance gun rights, I told about how my blog got started and then gave examples of how bloggers and citizen journalists had used new media to advance gun rights. This year I want to speak to you about how you can use new media to advance our civil rights and freedoms.


By a show of hands, how many people here have a Facebook account? Or a Twitter account? Or both?


(That’s great! We’re getting there!)


We are in a political and cultural war to save our civil rights and freedoms from the gun control industry. This used to be merely the Brady Campaign and a few under-funded splinter groups.


That was then, this is now.


The gun control industry has morphed into an unholy alliance of academia, left-wing politicians, big media including Hollywood, pro bono lawyers from mega firms, progressive foundations and think-tanks, and so-called gun safety groups. The gun control industry has gotten smarter, savvier, and definitely better funded thanks to anti-freedom billionaires like Michael Bloomberg and Bill Gates among others.


Add into this mix the Democrat’s nominee for president who considers us a “basket of deplorable” and irredeemable. Hillary has declared war on us and on the gun culture – both versions 1.0 and 2.0.


This unholy alliance seeks to marginalize us. To say that we are on the fringe and that the numbers of gunowners are declining. To portray us as toothless, uneducated white rednecks. That we are not Mainstream America.
So how do we fight these well-funded forces that want to strip us of our freedoms?



We take the battle to them! We can’t afford full-page ads in major newspapers or on television but we can wage an effective guerrilla war using the tools of the Internet and New Media. We must become like the Mujahideen against the Soviets or the French Maquis against the Nazis. We hit them hard and we hit them fast. Like in judo, we use the weight of their money and their Establishment ties against them.
This past Sunday, Tom Gresham on Gun Talk Radio said everyone should have four tools – Facebook, Twitter, Snapchat, and email. The Missouri Firearms Coalition told how they used Facebook Live to keep pressure on politicians to override Jay Nixon’s veto of constitutional carry. It worked and Missouri now is the 11th state with constitutional carry.



I agree with Tom on the use of those tools but I wouldn’t limit myself to just those four. I’d add in Pinterest, Instagram, Tumblr, Reddit, and Google Plus. Pick one or two of these tools and teach yourself how to use them. If you have trouble learning them, ask your kids or grandkids for help!


When you take a new shooter to the range, post pictures of the trip on Facebook and Instagram. If you happen across a funny meme that skewers anti-gunners, post it on Tumblr or Pinterest. When you view an interesting gun related video on YouTube, post it to Facebook, to Tumblr, to Pinterest, to Twitter. If you feel like you can share your expertise, then become active on Reddit or one of the many Facebook or Internet gun forums. You don’t have to be an author – you just need to like, share, and repost what others have written. Take is a step further and follow Shannon Watts on Twitter and then contest her lies.


What we are doing as individuals when we do all of this is normalizing the ownership and use of firearms for recreation and self-defense. When a non-gunny coworker who is a Facebook friend sees us having fun shooting, they may ask you to take them to the range. That more than anything will inoculate them against the lies of the gun control industry.


I want to recognize my friend Erin Palette and her Operation Blazing Sword. After the murders at the Pulse nightclub, she went on Facebook and offered to take any LGBTQ person who wanted to learn to shoot safely to the range. For free. Trainers, ranges, and mere gun owners deluged her with offers to take people to the range on their own dime. They didn’t ask about sexual orientation. They only saw good people being attacked. Using Google Maps, she posted their contact info and how a LGBTQ person could get training. As of this week, Operation Blazing Sword has 1270 trainers across the country on that map.


One final thought on using New Media to advance and protect our gun rights. Learn the left’s playbook aka Alinsky’s Rules for Radicals and use those guerrilla tactics against them. Especially Rule No. 4 – Make the enemy live up to its own rules.


Thank you for your time today.

Now here is what I actually said. Like I said, I had to edit it down for time. I also tried to add some things that I had heard on Saturday of the conference.

Hi. I’m John Richardson.

I have the gun blog No Lawyers – Only Guns and Money.

Last year when I spoke on using new media to advance gun rights, I told about how my blog got started and then gave examples of how bloggers and citizen journalists had used new media to advance gun rights. This year I want to speak to you about how you can use new media to advance our civil rights and freedoms.

We are in a political and cultural war to save our civil rights and freedoms from the gun control industry. This used to be merely the Brady Campaign and a few under-funded splinter groups.

That was then, this is now.

The gun control industry has morphed into an unholy alliance of academia, left-wing politicians, big media including Hollywood, pro bono lawyers from mega firms, progressive foundations, and so-called gun safety groups. The gun control industry has gotten smarter, savvier, and definitely better funded.

This unholy alliance seeks to marginalize us. To say that we are on the fringe and that the numbers of gunowners are declining. To portray us as toothless, uneducated white rednecks. That we are not Mainstream America.

So how do we fight these well-funded forces that want to strip us of our freedoms?

We take the battle to them! We can’t afford full-page ads in major newspapers or on television but we can wage an effective guerrilla war using the tools of the Internet and New Media. We hit them hard; we hit them fast. Like in judo, we use the weight of their money and their Establishment ties against them.

This past Sunday, Tom Gresham on Gun Talk Radio said everyone should have four tools – Facebook, Twitter, Snapchat, and email.

I agree with Tom on the use of those tools but I wouldn’t limit myself to just those four. I’d add in Pinterest, Instagram, Tumblr, Reddit, Google Plus, and whatever else is out there. Pick one or two of these tools and teach yourself how to use them. If you have trouble learning them, ask your kids or grandkids for help!

When you take a new shooter to the range, post pictures of the trip on Facebook and Instagram. If you happen across a funny meme that skewers anti-gunners, post it on Tumblr or Pinterest. When you view an interesting gun related video on YouTube, post it to Facebook, to Tumblr, to Pinterest, to Twitter. You don’t have to be an author – you just need to like, share, and repost what others have written. As Tom Gresham told me yesterday, you need to become an amplifier.

What we are doing as individuals when we do all of this is normalizing the ownership and use of firearms for recreation and self-defense. When a non-gunny coworker who is a Facebook friend sees us having fun shooting, they may ask you to take them to the range. That more than anything will inoculate them against the lies of the gun control industry.

You heard from Rick Ector yesterday on the power of social media to reach out to women. My friend Erin Palette used it after the Pulse nightclub shooting to reach out to the LGBTQ community. Her Operation Blazing Sword now has 1,270 trainers on an interactive Google Maps doc who have offered to take a gay person to the range for firearm familiarization. For free!

One final thought on using New Media to advance and protect our gun rights. Learn the left’s playbook aka Alinsky’s Rules for Radicals and use those guerrilla tactics against them. Especially Rule No. 4 – Make the enemy live up to its own rules.

Thank you for your time today.

Charles Heller of Liberty Watch Radio recorded the whole conference and has posted them here.

The link to the MP3 of the New Media panel is here. It is self starting.

If anyone would like to make suggestions on things I should have considered, please (please!!!) leave comments.

Additional research and editing on for this provided by Barb Richardson.

Livestream Of 2016 Gun Rights Policy Conference

The Polite Society Podcast will once again be Livestreaming the content of the Gun Rights Policy Conference. Not only will each session be featured but there will be interviews with many of the speakers. The conference begins tomorrow in Tampa at 8:30am. Gov. Rick Scott (R-FL) will be giving a welcome around 9am according to the preliminary agenda.

We will be using YouTube for the streaming video of the event. The links for Day 1 and Day 2 are below. Paul Lathrop, Rob Morse, Rachel Malone, Gary Daugherty, and myself will be handling the hosting duties.

Sponsors of the livestream include the Firearms Policy Coalition, Ammoland.com, LFD Research, and Geeks Gadgets and Guns.

I will be again presenting at the Gun Rights Policy Conference on using new media to advance gun rights. That session begins at 10:20am on Sunday. I’ve written my presentation and will be practicing and editing it a few more times before Sunday.

2016 Gun Rights Policy Conference

Just a reminder from the Second Amendment Foundation that the Gun Rights Policy Conference will be held in less than two weeks.

BELLEVUE, WA – Virginia attorney Alan Gura, who won both the 2008 Heller case and the 2010 case of McDonald v. City of Chicago before the U.S. Supreme Court, is slated to be one of the highlight speakers later this month at the 31st annual Gun Rights Policy Conference at the DoubleTree by Hilton in Tampa, Fla., an event that will also feature several national gun rights leaders.


More than 75 speakers will participate in a wide range of panel discussions ranging from this fall’s elections to state legislative activities, working with the press, and other important Second Amendment issues including personal protection.


Also scheduled are Alan Gottlieb, founder of the Second Amendment Foundation (SAF) and chairman of the Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms (CCRKBA), Mark Walters, host of the national radio show Armed American Radio; Tom Gresham, host of nationally-syndicated Gun Talk radio; nationally-recognized firearms instructor and self-defense authority Massad Ayoob, and Professor John Lott, author of The War on Guns and a Fox News.com contributor. The full roster of speakers is not yet finalized.


In addition, SAF and CCRKBA leaders will be joined by representatives from the National Shooting Sports Foundation, Gun Owners of America, the National Rifle Association, Breitbart.com, the Washington Times, Washington Free Beacon and Jews for the Preservation of Firearms Ownership, who will also be speaking.


The weekend event typically attracts more than 700 gun owners, activists and experts from across the country. Attendance is free, and on-line registration is available at http://www.saf.org .


WHO: National gun rights leaders
WHAT: Speaking at the 31st annual Gun Rights Policy Conference
WHEN: Saturday, Sept. 24 & Sunday, Sept. 25
WHERE: DoubleTree by Hilton, 4500 W Cypress St, Tampa, FL 33607

On Sunday morning, I will be presenting along with Paul Lathrop of The Polite Society Podcast about the uses of new media to advance gun rights.

The Polite Society Podcast will be livestreaming the event on both days. We will also have interviews during the breaks with many of the speakers. Even if you can’t make it down to sunny Florida in person, you can still participate in the Gun Rights Policy Conference. More details on where we will be livestreaming the event as we get closer.