Last weekend, I traveled to Dallas, Texas to attend the Second Amendment Foundation’s AmmCon and Gun Rights Policy Conference for the first time.
I now hope to keep the events in my annual rotation of “must-attend” functions for the foreseeable future.
The keynote speaker of AmmCon, the Alternative Mass Media Conventions 2022 Workshop, was none other than AWR Hawkins of Breitbart. In his speech, Hawkins detailed the long journey of failures and rejection that he went through until he landed his contract at Breitbart now over a decade ago. The speech was inspiring and you could see that his remarks struck an emotional chord with several attendees — including myself.
Having the ability to write about gun rights and be a voice for freedom is one that we can not take for granted, and those of us that are able to have this as a full-time job are truly blessed.
As the organizers of AmmCon wrote while promoting the conference, “WE ARE RESPONSIBLE for so much of the information that our 2nd Amendment community receives. We MUST hold ourselves to a higher standard than that of the local and national media… Continuing Education is a vital part of any industry and AMM-COM is taking the lead on 2nd Amendment NEW MEDIA education.”
Another highlight of the event was the overall collaborative tone that was present throughout the weekend. The conference was well attended by numerous National Rifle Association (NRA) state affiliates and certified instructors, Gun Owners of America (GOA) state directors and national leadership, state directors of the DC Project, and staff of the Firearms Policy Coalition. Typically, members of these groups don’t always get along — but at this year’s GRPC everyone was there with one goal. To capitalize upon the monumental Supreme Court ruling in the NRA-backed case of NYSRPA v. Bruen and expand upon the rights of gun owners across America.
That is why what Second Amendment Foundation President Alan Gottlieb and his team have created in six short years is truly unique, and should be supported throughout the gun rights community.
More gun activists should attend this conference, as many often feel like they work in a silo. Not every group is active in every state but as a cohesive unit, the pro-Second Amendment community is a force to be reckoned with.
In my personal experience, many firearms enthusiasts hesitate to get involved in activism, and even those that chose to become activists often try to divide their activism from political reality.
My longtime friend and AmmCon speaker Rebecca Schmoe has been a pro-Second Amendment activist for over a decade, and is running for legislative office this year in her home state of Kansas. Her session during the conference focused on messaging and making sure that the message she gives is tailored to a specific audience, something that she has mastered over the years. As an activist, she has addressed her peers. As a citizen lobbyist, she has held meetings with state-level and national legislators and educated them on the goals of various groups she has been a part of, whether that has been as a member of the DC Project: Women for Gun Rights or 1 Million Moms Against Gun Control. Now, she is tailoring her own unique message to her state house district as she interacts with everyday voters who are for the most part unfamiliar with her as an individual and with her journey from gun activist to candidate.
More should follow in her footsteps — and she very succinctly summed up why. People often say that they “don’t follow politics.” Her response to that statement, which is one often heard by anyone who seeks to get their peers involved in politics is this: “You may not follow politics, but it follows you everywhere you go.”
The opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the positions of American Liberty News.
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