WASHINGTON As conservatives prepare to gather Thursday for their closely-watched national summit, the strategy for talking about guns seems deceptively simple: Don’t shy away from discussing the issue. Be compassionate. And don’t let anti-gun activists hijack the debate.
“No matter what your viewpoint on the constitutional words of the Second Amendment, these are moments for introspection,” said Matt Schlapp, chairman of the American Conservative Union, which organizes the annual Conservative Political Action Conference.
“My guess is, though we don’t tell people what to say, my guess is those involved in CPAC (who) are going to be discussing this issue will be careful, properly somber,” he added.
CPAC, set to take place over three days at National Harbor, Md., begins just days after a gunman killed 17 teenagers and bystanders at a Florida high school.
The conference is the premier showcase for the nation's conservatives. It routinely attracts not only top Washington officeholders, but is traditionally a forum for up-and-coming movement stars. It's full of exhibits, workshops and seminars where like-minded conservatives can share views and shape ideas they can take back home to further motivate followers.
In large part, organizers of CPAC are going about business as usual ahead of Thursday’s kickoff.
National Rifle Association executive vice president and CEO Wayne LaPierre is scheduled to address the convention, though as of Wednesday afternoon his speaking slot had still not been publicly assigned.
“What is the NRA afraid of?” Everytown for Gun Safety, a gun control advocacy group, taunted in a press statement.
Schlapp waved off questions about LaPierre’s absence from the official schedule, saying his presence had already been announced on Twitter and that more specifics should be listed soon.
A panel discussion will proceed as planned on Saturday morning to mark the 10th anniversary of the Supreme Court decision “Heller v. District of Columbia,” which ruled in favor of a civilian’s Second Amendment right to possess firearms.
Nevertheless, CPAC could become a perilous political moment for Republicans who want to appear sympathetic without alienating their base, defying the powerful NRA and betraying their own deeply-held beliefs on the role of guns in American life.
Niger Innis, a spokesman for the Congress of Racial Equality and a veteran of the Tea Party movement who will be moderating the panel, said participants should frame their remarks in the context of the Parkland, Fla., tragedy.
“There’s no question there will be a certain degree of sadness and seriousness that we’re going to bring to this panel,” Innis told McClatchy. “And no doubt that there’s a time for action regarding these tragedies and making sure these tragedies don’t happen again. The action that we’re going to promote is not the action of the gun prohibitionist crowd, but it will be action.”
Innis’ idea of action would be putting armed security guards in every school, potentially drawing from the veteran population to give jobs to servicemen and women who can’t find work after their tours of duty.
Gayle Trotter, a conservative commentator who testified before the Senate Judiciary Committee in opposition to more restrictive gun laws following the December 2012 shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn., said she hoped to hear this proposal from Innis’ panel.
“As parents and members of communities, we should put pressure on our school districts and local government to make school safety the number one budget priority of schools,” said Trotter. She noted armed guards are already protecting civilians at banks and rock concerts.
This concept is gaining traction among members of Congress, too. Rep. Jeff Duncan, R-S.C., said in a Facebook post following the Florida shooting he was “ramping up” legislative efforts to equip schools with “trained personnel with access to a firearm.”
CPAC participants will also be competing this week to control the narrative alongside a new group of anti-gun activists: Students from the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Fla., who witnessed and survived the Feb. 14 shooting.
"I'm going to listen to them,” said Schlapp. “I think they have a voice that should be heard. I think on these tough issues we ought to listen to each other. I also listen to Steve Scalise and others who have been victims of terrible violence.”
Scalise, the Louisiana Republican and House GOP Whip, was almost killed when a gunman opened fire on a congressional baseball game practice last summer. He emerged from the incident unchanged in his opposition to more gun control legislation.
“I’m telling my colleagues, ‘Listen, we have to acknowledge what happened in Florida and we have to be aware — and I say this not with anger, I say it with regret — that there are those that have an agenda that is frankly a gun-prohibitionist agenda,’” Innis said.
Some CPAC participants went a step further.
“The well ORGANIZED effort by Florida school students demanding gun control has GEORGE SOROS’ FINGERPRINTS all over it,” tweeted David Clarke, a conservative activist and former Milwaukee County sheriff who has a speaking slot at CPAC on Friday, referring to the well-known donor of progressive movement groups.
Members of Congress, including Florida GOP Sen. Marco Rubio, have rejected the idea that the students are anything other than sincere.
“Claiming some of the students on TV after #Parkland are actors is the work of a disgusting group of idiots with no sense of decency,” Rubio tweeted.
For Trotter, who believes there is an "overemphasis on these children" at the expense of media coverage of those survivors of mass shootings who oppose banning firearms, Clarke's comments were probably not helpful optics.
“If you make allegations like that, you should have some sort of supporting evidence for it, so I don’t think that’s really helpful to the discussion,” she said.
But she added she doesn’t think conservatives need to “soften” their tone ahead of CPAC. In fact, she said most gun rights advocates’ rhetoric was already appropriate.
“They have been successful, even in the face of really emotionally devastating happenings, to remind people that there is not an easy solution,” she said.
Emma Dumain: 202-383-6126, @Emma_Dumain
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