Why no guns at the NRA show?

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

Does the NRA have politicians on the run?

There are some who say the gun-rights lobby has never been stronger, according to a CNN report getting a lot of buzz ahead of today's opening of the annual NRA convention in Charlotte.

Reporter Carol Costello talks with rocker and NRA board member Ted Nugent, who says the NRA has gun-control advocates on the run – with President Barack Obama leading the pack.

“He’s scared,” Nugent says. “We know that President Obama is against the NRA, but he's not going to speak about that, because it would be political suicide, like for those who have stood up in the past.”

Some gun-control advocates feel betrayed that Obama isn’t fighting harder for gun control, Costello says. He’s signed bills that allow guns in national parks and on Amtrak trains – bills the NRA loves. Some agree with Nugent that politicians — who are just as likely to be photographed posing with guns as posing with babies — may be ducking the issue.

What do you think?

Ted Nugent: More guns equal less crime

Ted Nugent says gun-control laws amount to "cruel indecency and forced victimization."

In a decidedly politically incorrect column in The Washington Times ahead of Friday's opening of the NRA convention in Charlotte, the rock star and well-known gun-rights supporter says that "the inescapable truth — as FBI crime reports and numerous law enforcement and academic studies conclude — is that more guns clearly equal less crime."

He continues:

Where there are more guns per capita, violent crime goes down, particularly crimes of assault, such as rape, burglary and robbery. This is good. This is what the NRA stands for. Anti-gunners, not so much.

Nugent criticizes "gun-free zones," calling them "guaranteed slaughter zones, where the most innocent lives are lost every time."

The choice is clear, he says:

Gun control as forced by the Chuck Schumers and Michael Bloombergs of the world is complicit in every violent crime committed. Conversely, gun control a la Ted Nugent is putting the second shot through the same hole as the first shot, where innocent lives are saved and recidivistic maggots come to a screeching halt, felled by the lovely ballet of good over evil we call the "Double Tap Center Mass Boogie." Learn it, know it, love it, shoot it. Good guys should live, bad guys, not so much.

• Read Nugent's entire column here.

Nugent is scheduled to speak to CNN at 6 a.m. and 8 a.m. Friday about the opening of the NRA convention in Charlotte.

Update: From Ted's blog:

Correspondent Carol Costello interviews Ted on what to expect from his highly anticipated appearance at this year’s convention in Charlotte. Ted also discusses recent legislation and more.Tune in at 6 am EDT, and again at 8 am EDT and watch Ted stick to his guns!

"The Nuge" will lead a seminar at the convention at 12:30 p.m. Sunday titled "We the People." He'll sign autographs and books afterward in the Charlotte Convention Center.