More people than ever before are attending this year’s gun rights policy conference in Phoenix, hosted by the Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms and the Second Amendment Foundation, organizers say. It’s the 34th annual conference of its kind.

Second Amendment Foundation founder Alan M. Gottlieb characterizes this year’s theme as a call to action for supporters of gun rights.

“A lot of us feel a number of states — particularly states like New York, New Jersey, Connecticut and California — have pushed laws that are so extreme, people are losing their freedom,” Gottlieb said. “We want our freedom back, and we want it now.”

Echoing that statement was speaker Esther Schneider, who recently resigned from her position as a National Rifle Association board member, along with two other former members.

At the conference, held at the Sheraton Crescent Hotel on Saturday, Schneider spoke on a five-person panel about women and guns. She said that gun rights advocates need to “change the spokesperson” for their cause.

“We have to change the message, we have to change the medium and we have to change the spokesperson. No offense, guys, but younger moms don’t want to hear from a bunch of old, white guys,” Schneider said, to resounding applause from hundreds of women and men in attendance.

Schneider elaborated in an interview with The Arizona Republic, explaining that women have a lot of power in the political conversation about the Second Amendment.

“The old expression is, when mama’s not happy, nobody’s happy,” Schneider said. “A man is not going to be able to do a lot of things (like) taking his son shooting. If mama doesn't buy into that, it’s not likely going to happen.”

Schneider, a member of the Jewish faith, said the fact that her family members are Holocaust victims makes the gun rights cause hit even closer to home.

“The Jews in Poland, in Germany, everywhere. First thing they did was hand over their guns because they believed in the government. And what did the government do?” Schneider said. “They killed them.”

Representatives from the Jews for the Preservation of Firearms Ownership were also in attendance, presenting literature and information about the Bill of Rights and gun safety.

Membership director Duke Schechter, who has also worked as an NRA-certified shooting instructor for several years, said education is a critical part of the organization’s mission.

“What it boils down to is education because the more you know the better off YOU are in any given situation,” Schechter said.

He also said he teaches his students that ideally, they will never need to use their guns in self-defense.

“Your most successful gunfight is the one you avoid. But when there are times that you cannot avoid, then you have to know how to protect yourself from the system,” he said.

The conference continues Sunday at the Sheraton Crescent Hotel, with registration opening at 8:30 a.m. and several discussions scheduled. The conference closes at 1 p.m., with a workshop on suicide prevention hosted by Safer Homes, Suicide Aware to follow at 1:30 p.m.

For more information, visit https://www.saf.org/grpc/.