By Philip Van Cleave
Covington VA –-(Ammoland.com)- A few weeks ago I attended and spoke at the annual Gun Rights Policy Conference (GRPC). This year it was held in Phoenix, Arizona. Next year it will be in Tampa, Florida.
This year’s GRPC was packed with leadership and members from gun-rights groups from sea to shining sea. GRPC provides a fantastic venue for the various gun groups to hear presentations by experts on a wide variety of subjects and allows for interaction between attendees.
If you’ve never attended a GRPC conference, you are really missing an important event.
Hats off to the Second Amendment Foundation (saf.org) for the massive effort they put into the free two-day conference every year, including making it run so smoothly.
I had the opportunity to meet with the leadership of the Arizona Citizens Defense League. Fred Dahnke, who is the AZCDL’s treasurer, is also a VCDL Executive Member. This year Fred was given the prestigious honor of being selected as the Gun Rights Defender of the Year! He also got that award back in 2008, as I recall. Congratulations, Fred!
I spoke about VCDL’s fight in Virginia to protect out rights on a panel with several other panelists representing other key states.
There was a lot of discussion on how to deal with Michael Bloomberg’s attack on the Second Amendment, especially dealing with Universal Background Checks and ballot initiatives.
Oh, I also have some unexpected bragging rights. On the afternoon before the event began there was a shooting match for attendees. It had five stages, with each stage having different layouts and its own winner (fastest shooter completing the stage successfully). I won the first stage, which required hitting 5 steel plates at various distances. I still can’t believe I pulled that one off, especially watching some of the talent that was there that day, but I’ll take a healthy dose of luck any day!
About:
Virginia Citizens Defense League, Inc. (VCDL). VCDL is an all-volunteer, non-partisan grassroots organization dedicated to defending the human rights of all Virginians. The Right to Keep and Bear Arms is a fundamental human right. Visit: www.vcdl.org
Attendees from Illinois included Richard Pearson, who sold out Otis McDonald. In real life, Pearson is a back slapping insurance salesman in Chatsworth, IL, a flat prairie town with a railroad line and a grain bin, where he is a member in good standing of the local 9 hole golf course. Never to be seen without a hard liquor cocktail in his hand as he totters around the GRPC dinner, Pearson has the grand poobah title of executive director of the IL State Rifle Association, possibly the worst NRA affiliate in all 50 states under his steerage. Pearson and ISRA… Read more »
Best 2nd Amendment speech..