https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KS4AdGaUaNI&feature=youtu.be

Saturday’s 2nd Amendment Rally on the lawn of the U.S. Capitol saw more than one thousand activists from across the country (I’m not an expert in counting crowds, but I’d estimate between fifteen hundred to two thousand people were in attendance) gather in support of the right to keep and bear arms. The thirty speakers and the crowd of attendees represented a broad and unified effort to protect the Second Amendment from the types of infringements and unconstitutional encroachments that are popular among politicians and even some voters.

There were familiar faces on the podium, like Dianna Muller of the D.C. Project, competitive shooter Gabby Franco, firearms attorney Joshua Prince, New Jersey range owner and NRA board member Anthony Colandro, and even little old me, but folks in attendance or watching the livestream online saw a very surprising figure take the stage as well. Dan Gross, the former president of the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence and a man who once called for a ban on handguns, was brave enough to take the stage and show his support for the right to keep and bear arms, as well as rejecting a so-called “assault weapons ban” and other gun control laws.

In fact, Gross said while he may still support things like expanded background checks personally, he’s not interested in pushing policy at all. Instead, he’s hoping to find common ground with gun owners on non-legislative, non-coercive best practices and tools that can help ensure responsible gun ownership.

I had the opportunity to sit down with Dan the day before the rally took place, to talk about his journey from heading up one of the largest gun control organizations to speaking publicly about his support for the right to keep and bear arms, where gun owners and gun control advocates might be able to find some actual common ground, and why he believes that gun bans aren’t the right thing to do to protect public safety. I imagine Dan and I don’t agree on everything, but we do agree that there are things that can be done that don’t require any governmental involvement that can save lives, whether its helping gun owners temporarily store their firearms in a time of crisis or bringing real firearms safety education and training to inner cities and other underserved communities. I hope you check out the entire interview above on today’s Bearing Arms’ Cam & Co.

One of the themes of the rally, and for many of the speakers, was the need to build a strong coalition of gun owners and Second Amendment supporters. We may not agree on everything, and that’s okay. We can still work together on the 90% of the issues where we are united. One of the flags flying in the crowd on Saturday was a “Join or Die” flag, and that’s exactly the case when it comes to our right to keep and bear arms. We can either join together in a broad coalition to defend our rights, or we can witness the death of the Second Amendment on our watch.

Also on today’s program, we talk a little about the collapse of the campaign of Robert Francis “Beto” O’Rourke, the “catastrophic failure” of Tennessee’s juvenile justice system, the armed mom who saved her husband and daughter from violent home invaders with her AR-15, and a New York police officer who made a life-saving detour on his way to a police academy graduation.

You can subscribe to the show at Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, and Townhall.com’s podcast page, as well as subscribing to Townhall Media at YouTube. As always, thanks for watching, listening, and spreading the word. Also, if you were one of the many folks who came up to me during the rally to say hello, thank you! It was great to meet dozens of readers and supporters of the show, and I hope it won’t be long before we get the opportunity to gather again.