Friday, May 14, 2010

Why no guns at the NRA show?

Part of the Taurus handgun display at the NRA annual meeting in Charlotte.There are plenty of guns on display on the floor of the Charlotte Convention Center for the NRA's annual meeting this weekend, but none of the visitors will be carrying. There also won't be any weapons at the Time Warner Cable Arena, where Sarah Palin spoke today and Glenn Beck and Newt Gingrich will be speaking Saturday.

On its website, the NRA explains:

Note: North Carolina State law prohibits the carrying of firearms in the Charlotte Convention Center, and the Time Warner Cable Arena. In addition, the Rules and Regulations of the Charlotte Convention Center prohibit the carrying of firearms in the Center. Pursuant to Time Warner Cable Arena policy, all individuals entering the Arena will be subject to a magnetometer security check.

An NRA staffer elaborates on the no-guns policy, in a letter posted by the Huffington Post today:

Thank you for contacting us.

The Charlotte Convention Center does not allow the carrying of firearms, both open and concealed.

The large size of our event and the fact that many of the largest convention centers are in some of the most restrictive cities leaves us with relatively few convention centers large enough to accommodate the Annual Meetings. In an effort to provide all NRA members a better opportunity to attend the Annual Meetings, it is important that we move the event around the country as much as possible. While we will not consider bringing the Annual Meetings to a city with gun laws we feel are restrictive, we must however deal with convention centers that have restrictions simply because there are so few convention centers that both allow conceal carry and are large enough to host all of the events that comprise the Annual Meetings.

Thank you for your support!

Best Regards,

Ken
NRA Member Communications

19 comments:

Bobby Clark said...

The NRA knows better than to allow 70,000 wingnuts to be packing.

prestonsc said...

oh contrare....there WERE guns there...;-) You can bet on that!

Steve said...

What if The Revolution starts while they're in the convention without their guns?

Anonymous said...

the rEVOLution builds among those who were NOT there from every state.

www.CampaignforLiberty.com

STRIVE to be SMARTER than the EVIL party of government SLAVERY wants you to BE!

Anonymous said...

"A WELL REGULATED MILITIA being necessary to the security of a free State...."

WELL REGULATED.

W-E-L-L R-E-G-U-L-A-T-E-D.

Not just regulated. WELL regulated.

Dictionary definitions:

WELL - fully or entirely.

REGULATED - governed, managed, or controlled.

Anonymous said...

I think 'well regulated' applies to the militia part, and the 'shall not be infringed' applies to the keeping and bearing arms part.

Anonymous said...

People packing heat around Sarah Palin and Geln Beck? Pffffttt... are you kidding?

Anthony Hopkins said...

Online Safecracking   What is online safecracking?  This is what we call computer hacking.  This is stealing information from another from the use of a personal computer.  This is also when someone else enters their own personal information online or even inside of a letter and it is stolen by someone else.  This is a crime itself.  This is also classified as identity theft and fraud.  This is also when others gain access to your information illegally by using anything in reference to your financial information, library accounts, personal email addresses as well as gaining any personal information that is sacred to you.  This has happen to me for the past 12 years.  This is the real truth!!!!  My information was illegally shared with others without my common knowledge.  Also, my phone number was revealed to others by these online safecrackers with others and I did not know it. This has affected my credit rating as well as my personal life. Faithfully Submitted, Anthony Hopkins

PS: The Right to bear arms in the United States is a very serious issue. This should be handled with a great deal of discretion.

Anthony Hopkins said...

Civil Rights and Liberties What are civil rights?  Let's explain what a right is.  A general right is just what people have when it comes to privacy and our way of life.  This is based on rules and regulations that we as people must adhere to on a daily basis.  Civil Rights have a whole lot to do with our culture, well being as human beings, and it also pertains to our heritage as people.  It also pertains to our liberties and personality that is formed by our parents.  Our parents are supposed to teach us the things that are right and wrong, so that we can understand what society is all about.  If it wasn't for our parents and the things that they have done to survive, we would not exist.  It is our parents that had made a conscious decision to conceive a life into this world, but it is God Himself that gives us life.  Conception is general!!  Civil Rights have a lot to do with our political freedoms.  Political Freedoms as well as our way of life is what really give us the right to live inside of this country.  Civil Rights and Liberties are very important to me and to others.  We have a right to form an opinion about anything that comes to mind.  The opinion that we make should not offend others in any way.  As long as we have a right to petition, speak, religion, education, family, and to live inside of a country that promotes good ethics.  I feel that my civil rights have been violated as of late.  This is simply because my concerns regarding public safety are not properly addressed.  This makes me feel betrayed by members of law enforcement as well as others inside of the community that I choose to live.  This is in conjunction with the way my responses that I had sent to the Dayton Police Department were deleted from the system.  I really felt personally that members of the Dayton Police Department should have given me a phone call personally to address my issues.  I am really saddened and hurt by the way members of law enforcement as well as those in state and federal government are handling legal cases.  Many police tips are not properly addressed and this is a violation of my civil rights and liberties.    This is also a violation of my first amendment rights as a United States Citizen.  I am writing this because I really feel that things are not being properly addressed when it comes to public safety as well as civil rights in the Dayton, Ohio Community.   Sincerely, Anthony Hopkins

PS: The right to bear arms in the United States is a very important issue. Therefore, gun laws are tougher because of a lack of control in the Correctional Systems in the United States. Tougher sentences for gun crimes should be enacted. However, all states are sovereign. This means that all of the states in the United States has their own laws.

Anonymous said...

way too many sky pilots in this world

Anonymous said...

It sounds like the NRA is only interested in Christians.

PJ said...

I am a CCW permittee and a staunch advocate of the 2nd Amendent,but I understand the policy of no concealed or open carry of firearms in a mass gathering like the NRA convention.

When we attend a gun show, we are required to secure our weapons and at the Metrolina show, those running the show hold our mags and ammo until we leave. When a mass of armed people are in a public venue, there's too much potential for a firearm to be handled, dropped, or accidentally discharged. The result could be deadly. In a Fredricksburg, VA gun show a dealer...not a customer..a dealer accidentally discharged a firearm when ALL weapons were supposed to be locked - unable to be fired. He was immediately escorted and banned from that company's gun shows. His merchandise was packed for him after he left the building.

The convention center and NRA could have decided to let people carry on site, despite the stated and posted policy. However, to check each handgun coming into the building would have been an impossible task. Most of us who carry and practice safety know that there is always one of two out of thousands who do not practice good safety and the rest of us have pay the consequences. I did not like having to walk to and from a parking garage without my personal protection, but in the case of the NRA convention or gun show, I can live with it. Besides, I doubt if there were many criminal types hanging anywhere near the convention center thinking they might rob someone BECAUSE they were not aware that the attendees were not armed AND there were LEOs all over the place. Downtown at the NRA convention was the safest place in Charlotte over the past few days.

Anonymous said...

Susan Lawing -

just like all "pro-life" hypocrites, you only think life begins at conception and ends at birth. What about the 100,000 people, many women and children, slaughtered by U.S. TROOPS in Afghanistan and Iraq? PRO-LIFE mean ANTI-WAR.

Until these so-called "Christians" start standing AGAINST the murderous warmongering in Iraq and Afghanistan - they are not TRULY PRO-LIFE. They are LYING hypocrites who only interested in pushing their corrupt, morally bankrupt political addenda.

Anonymous said...

Susan Lawing, I feel sorry for you and women like you. It is so sad that you can be captured by the inti-abortion crowd to the extent that you will run to the bible to find some phrase that will promote your warped way of thinking. Why wouldn't you condemn the fact that this couple, that you write about, were having children out of wedlock? Doesn't that fit into your holy way of thinking? Ya, I know, Sara Palin's kid had one out of wedlock so that should make it all right with you.

Anonymous said...

How childish. Name calling. My pro-life views have NOTHING to do with the Bible and EVERYTHING to do with personal responsibility and the right thing to do. I didn't want kids, so I have consistently used birth control my entire reproductive life. Therefore, I have never been pregnant. In this modern society, there is NO excuse for getting pregnant--none, except for the facts that you are lazy and didn't correctly use your birth control, you didn't care, or you were trying to snag a man because you think that having a baby will keep him from leaving you. How pathetic that is. I am proud to be a conservative, college-educated pro-life woman, and I am no war-mongerer. I am proud of our troops and the NRA and support them both.

Shawn said...

The funny thing about the NRA having Beck, Gingrich and Palin speak about some irrationally perceived threat to the 2nd amendment is that the whole issue really doesn't have anything to do with the 2nd amendment. It's all about using fear to raise money for the GOP just as they have done through the Tea Party Movement. It's good for the NRA because all the fear-mongering has boosted their membership and the same tactics have put more money in the RNC coffers.

I am waiting for people to wake up and realize that neither of these groups actually cares about 2nd amendment rights... it's a snow job. Noone is ever going to remove the right to own guns. It's just one more method in a long list of methods to raise money to pay more lawyers, lobbyists, politicians and "good ol' boys" who don't even consider the majority of Americans to be equal citizens. Wake up and realize that the "tax payers" that these people are referring to are not working people. They only really consider wealthy people as citizens... the rest of us are labor.

Anonymous said...

@Shawn:
Its interesting hearing someone say that the NRA doesn't care about 2nd amendment rights. Especially since NRA backed politicians voted to repeal the Clinton backed 'assault weapon' ban and the ban on high capacity magazines. They have also financed the attorneys and policticians who got the law passed to stop frivolous law suits against firearm manufacturers and dealers. They have gathered support for and backed the creation of concealed carry laws in numerous states and are the group most responsible for the case against the DC gun ban that led to a Supreme Court decision against DC. So please do some checking before making such ridiculous statements.

Shawn said...

@Anonymous

Read what I posted again... what I said is 100% true. I never said they don't have anything to do with ownership issues... I said that it's not their primary concern (paraphrase) and I am right. Look at the financial history of the NRA and you will find that alot more money has been spent on political campaigns than public education about 2nd amendment rights or fighting for those rights in court.

Again... I am not saying that the NRA does not do anything in regards to 2nd amendment rights... I am saying that they use fear of a non-existent threat to both raise money for and campaign for the Republican Party. The Tea Party Movement is the same device... it is a fund-raising machine for the GOP.

The point that I was making earlier was clear... it is much more about raising money and campaigning for GOP candidates than it is about 2nd Amendment rights... and the people they are supporting don't even consider the average American to be equals... because they are not "tax payers"... they are labor. Anytime you hear them saying "tax payers" they are referring to wealthy people... not average Americans... don't believe me? Go back and look at statements made to the press by some of them (including Gingrich) just in the last few months about who they believe tax payers to be. The recent GOP line has been that if you don't earn enough to owe taxes after deductions and credits you are part of the "entitlement class".

Paul said...

Do I know US history and 18th century language better as a Canadian than an American?

"A well regulated Militia..." within the meaning of old english is not about what we might in modern english find to mean regulation or control. The meaning of the phrase is about a well prepared and equipped militia when one uses the correct meaning and terminology of 18th century english speech that has not been bastardized into what it does not mean.

I also note that in 2009, the NRA Annual Meeting was held in a state and place that allowed concealed and open carrying of firearms. The grand total of any incidents from that event amongst the thousands who were carrying loaded firearms numbers zero. Yes, that is right; none!