Annual Gun Rights Policy Conference in Tampa Sept. 23-25

Dave WorkmanAugust 24, 2016

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GRPC 2015 — This scene from last years Gun Rights Policy Conference shows the kind of standing-room-only turnout one might expect in Tampa next month because this years event falls just over a month before the national elections. [Dave Workman photo]

Leaders and activists in the Second Amendment community will gather Sept. 23-25 in Tampa, Florida for the 31^st annual Gun Rights Policy Conference (GRPC), jointly sponsored by the Second Amendment Foundation and Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms.

Florida Carry has announced that it is serving as this year’s state host for the annual event, which will see some of the top gun rights experts participating in panel discussions and presentations. The event will be held at the Doubletree by Hilton Tampa Airport hotel, and hundreds of activists are expected at this free event.

What makes this year’s conference important is that the federal elections will be just seven weeks away when the event is held. Democrat Hillary Rodham Clinton has made gun control a cornerstone of her campaign. Republican nominee Donald Trump, on the other hand, has repeatedly declared his intentions to protect the Second Amendment.

The next president will fill the Supreme Court vacancy left by the untimely death earlier this year of Associate Justice Antonin Scalia. He was the author of the landmark 2008 ruling in District of Columbia v. Heller, which affirmed that the Second Amendment protects an individual civil right to keep and bear arms.

Will this presidential election be the most important in American history?

Yes

That ruling was followed two years later by SAF’s equally, if not more important McDonald ruling that not only nullified the Chicago handgun ban but also incorporated the Second Amendment to the states via the 14^th Amendment.

Whoever wins the November election could have the opportunity to name other Supreme Court justices, as well as many federal court judges. No doubt there will be at least one panel discussion during the conference stressing the importance of keeping Congress under Republican control because it is up to the Senate to confirm all court nominees.

The GRPC is a free event, and people who attend will have an opportunity to leave with lots of free reading material, including books co-authored by SAF founder and CCRKBA Chairman Alan Gottlieb.