Big Lineup at 2025 Gun Rights Policy Conference
September Conference in Salt Lake City
Veteran gun writer and something of an institution at American Handgunner
and GUNS, our own Massad Ayoob, will be a headline speaker at September’s
Gun Rights Policy Conference in Salt Lake City.
One of the headliners at this year’s 40th annual Gun Rights Policy Conference will be American Handgunner and GUNS Magazine’s own Massad Ayoob, who also happens to be president of the Second Amendment Foundation (SAF). The Foundation is a co-sponsor of the weekend conference along with the Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms (CCRKBA).
Another featured speaker will be Montana Attorney General Austin Knudsen, who has been a leader in forming coalitions of attorneys general in support of gun rights and in opposition to restrictive gun control proposals. Our paths first crossed a couple of years ago at a gathering in Missoula, and I’ve considered him a friend ever since.
Another speaker at the GRPC will be Montana Attorney General
Austin Knudsen. Where guns and rights are concerned,
this guy walks the walk.
The list of speakers also includes Missouri Attorney General Andrew Bailey, plus author and Ruby Ridge siege survivor Sara Weaver. You’ll see Kenyon Gleason, president of the National Association of Sporting Goods Wholesalers; Jared Yanis, host of Guns & Gadgets; Ava Flannel, host of the Ava Flannel show and founder of Elite Firearms & Training; and AWR Hawkins, award-winning Second Amendment columnist for Breitbart News.
This year’s GRPC will be held Sept. 26-28 at the Salt Lake Marriott Downtown at City Creek in Salt Lake City. According to a SAF news release, the theme for this year’s event is “Advocacy Through Action.”
GRPC 2025 is sponsored by the Silencer Shop, Vortex, Taurus and Trijicon. For more information, or to register, visit http://www.saf.org/grpc.
Within the next two years, citizens in Colorado and Washington
will need to get a purchase permit from the police in order to
exercise their right to own a gun, such as this Colt King Cobra.
Watch for federal court action.
Permit-to-Purchase Outrage
Almost certain to be on this year’s agenda will be laws passed by Democrats in Colorado and Washington which will require citizens in those states to obtain a permit-to-purchase from the police before they can exercise the right to own and carry firearms.
There is no way this can be constitutional under the Second Amendment and the constitutions of either state.
In Colorado, the right to bear arms provision (Article II, Section 13) reads, “The right of no person to keep and bear arms in defense of his home, person and property, or in aid of the civil power when thereto legally summoned, shall be called in question; but nothing herein contained shall be construed to justify the practice of carrying concealed weapons.”
In Washington, the RKBA constitutional tenet (Article I, Section 24) reads, “The right of the individual citizen to bear arms in defense of himself, or the state, shall not be impaired, but nothing in this section shall be construed as authorizing individuals or corporations to organize, maintain or employ an armed body of men.”
The Colorado law takes effect in August 2026 while Washington’s law becomes effective in May 2027. With two attorneys general on the GRPC roster, and the likelihood of several other attorneys in attendance, there could be some rather interesting conversations.
In a First Amendment case known as Murdock v. Pennsylvania, the U.S. Supreme Court determined that “A State may not impose a charge for the enjoyment of a right granted by the Federal Constitution.” But that’s exactly what the permit-to-purchase does. It requires citizens to first take an approved firearms safety training course and then purchase the permit before they will be allowed to buy a firearm.
This requirement thus reduces a constitutionally-protected right to the level of a government-regulated privilege. Rights cannot be revoked. Privileges can.
Pierce County, WA Sheriff Keith Swank has already
announced he will not enforce the new permit-to-purchase
law in his state. Official photo.
In Washington, there is already trouble brewing. Pierce County Sheriff Keith Swank has already declared he will not enforce the permit law.
According to MyNorthwest.com, Swank announced, “Recent state firearm regulations affecting licensed firearms dealers and introducing additional permit requirements for firearm purchases — beyond the state’s existing enhanced background checks — raise concerns regarding their alignment with constitutional rights. While respecting the legislative and judicial processes, it is essential to consider the constitutional implications of such laws that could affect enumerated rights.”
Washington and Colorado aren’t the only places where Second Amendment rights are in the spotlight. In the case of Indiana, gun control proponents seem to lament the fact that state lawmakers aren’t flexible when it comes to protecting the rights of their citizens to be armed.
The Indiana constitution reads, “Section 32. The people shall have a right to bear arms, for the defense of themselves and the State.”
Insider found the observation of Indiana University law professor Jody Madeira, quoted by the Daily Journal, troubling: “Indiana legislators, although they are so reasonable in other ways, are just so extreme with gun rights that there is no compromise…Although Indiana talks a good game about protecting firearm rights and only making sure that ‘rights are violated’ when it’s the last possible resort, to protect mental health or to protect the most vulnerable, they’re still not willing to compromise anyone’s access to firearms.”
Maybe someone should ask why Indiana legislators should be expected to “compromise” on the right of their citizens to bear arms. There’s nothing “extreme” about it. The state constitution isn’t up for debate. It says what it says, period. There is nothing to compromise.
Meanwhile, in Pennsylvania-
When it comes to “compromise” on guns, there might be a lesson in the tale of Democratic Pennsylvania State Rep. Frank Burns, once endorsed by Gun Owners of America.
The endorsement came to a screeching halt last month when, according to an alert from GOA Pennsylvania Director Dr. Val Finnell, Burns voted with his party and against gun owners by “single-handedly killing an effort to make constitutional carry the law of the land in the Keystone State.”
As a result, GOA revoked the endorsement.
“Frank Burns has erased his previous pro-gun track record, putting partisan politics over your Article 1, Section 21 rights,” Finnell wrote. “By siding with the anti-gun Democratic caucus, Rep. Burns has shown that loyalty to his party is more important than your God-given rights.”
Ukraine authorities have a little problem. Back in 2022, they
handed out maybe a million modern firearms and millions of rounds
of ammunition and now they want it all back. If the U.S. government
did that — with guns like these — just how cooperative would us Americans be, huh?
Remember when Ukraine began handing out guns to citizens for defense after Russians invaded the country a few years ago?
According to the Kyiv Independent, the country now is looking ahead at another problem: Getting those guns back.
The newspaper quoted Nicolas Florquin, senior researcher at the Small Arms Survey, a group based in Geneva. His observation was puzzling: “When the war ends, Ukraine will not only have to rebuild its infrastructure and resettle displaced people — it will also have to deal with collecting and disposing of vast quantities of arms and ammunition that were lost or abandoned by combatants on both sides, or stockpiled by civilians.”
Uh, why would the Ukraine government want to disarm those civilians since they seem to have put up a pretty decent fight against the Russians? Ukraine doesn’t have a Second Amendment, and apparently nobody there understands why we do. Well, we haven’t been invaded by the Russians lately, right?
The newspaper also revealed, “In Kyiv alone, during the first few days of the full-scale invasion, more than 25,000 automatic rifles and about 10 million bullets were handed out to civilians for Ukraine’s defense, according to public comments from then-Internal Affairs Minister Denis Monastyrsky.”
Later in the same story, there’s this: “Ukrainians may possess somewhere between one million and five million weapons, Internal Affairs Minister Ihor Klymenko stated last year.”
Sounds like the only problem in Ukraine is that it doesn’t have its own version of the NRA.
And, Finally…
Insider occasionally finds strange stories involving firearms, but this one out of Federal Way, Washington belongs way out in the weeds.
According to the Federal Way Mirror, a 14-year-old boy and his 20-year-old companion tried to rob a 13-year-old girl last month. The two would-be robbers walked up to three girls in the parking lot of an apartment complex, demanding that the 13-year-old turn over her belongings or they would shoot her.
At that point, the girl — remember, she’s a juvenile — “pulled a gun out and shot” the 20-year-old, identified as Javier Garcia. He dropped a gun “with an extended magazine” and ran away, only to return a short time later, long enough to die from the bullet wound in his chest.
And what about the 14-year-old? He was subsequently arrested at a middle school in Renton, several miles away. He’s been reportedly charged with second-degree assault, second-degree unlawful possession of a firearm, first-degree robbery, reckless endangerment and “misdemeanor theft of a firearm.”
You guessed it. Those strict gun laws adopted in Washington over the past few years are sure working, eh?
