The NRA convention speeches are happening live as I write this.
I'm watching Bobby Jindal speaking now how proud he is of the pro-gun laws he has passed. Like passing a bill that allows people to carry guns in their cars to the workplace, even when the employers don't like it.
Then he attacks "Hollywood and the liberal elites" for going after small businesses in Indiana. Nice pivot Bobby.
Digby's
piece in Salon today mentioned how the guns at the NRA gun show will have no firing pins, but that at the Hall where the speakers like Jindal are they will let people carry guns. I'm pretty sure if you dug into the protocols and process for that venue, regular attendees with guns would not be allowed. I know because I have looked into those events in the past.
Four years ago I looked into how a hotel next to a gun convention and at CPAC
actually handled security for politicians. Here's the story, "
Glock Block, No Civilian Guns at CPAC" (BTW, I'm proud of that headline.)
What I found is that for all the rhetoric about 2nd Amendment rights the politicians are spouting, the people in charge of security at events at the hotels and convention centers they are speaking at actively ignore them. And I'm totally glad they do. I just wish they would talk about that to the media.
There is really no downside for the pro-gun politicians to talk about wanting guns everywhere because of the protections they expect at the venues they choose.
But the media are discouraged from talking about this. I had some great ideas on how to point this out, it would have made a nice viral video. It might also have landed me in jail. But I was seriously discouraged by hotel staff and security people from attempting it and even writing about it.
I wondered what the response would be from the people who run security at CPAC if attendees wanted to bring their firearms to the event, either with a legal concealed carried gun or a open carried gun.
I called the the person in charge of CPAC at the Marriott Wardman Park Hotel who referred me to the person in charge of security. Instead of hearing from him, the next day I got a phone call from the District of Columbia police: Homeland Security Bureau, Special Operations Division, Special Events Branch. The nice officer from MPDC-HSB-SOD-SEB wanted me to know that attendees should not bring their guns to CPAC.
He explained that the only people who could legally have firearms at CPAC were active law enforcement and military in performance of their duties or retired officers who met the standards of HR218, the Law Enforcement Officers Safety Act. Even then, if the hotel wanted to, they could ask for no firearms to be allowed on the property (as the Marriott did when they had a hotel hosting NRA members near the last NRA convention in North Carolina.)
If I reported on this NRA event I'm betting I would find the same situation. Talk about guns everywhere in public, but in private there is an active use of strict controls. If I demanded that they address their hypocrisy and allow guns into their events, the people that I would be hurting wouldn't be those politicians, but other people who don't have a massive security system in place.
The other interesting thing is how the guns everywhere crowd acknowledge their hypocrisy of restrictions that are in place.
Do they actively defy restrictions at the NRA convention and create a nice viral video for the media to cover? No.
Do they petition their politicians to tell the NRA venue to let them in with their guns? No.
I actually asked a guns rights' activist these questions. He had easy answers. When a venue was denying them access with their guns he said he, "respected the rights of the private property owner." Boom. No problem.
When asked about petitioning their politicians to put their lives where their mouths were when speaking at a venue, he accepted the authority of the politicians' security detail. "They know best." Of course he acknowledged there are some "wackos" with guns out there that the security people are worried about--not him of course.
Here's the thing, I don't want pointing out their hypocrisy to lead to venues weakening their security. I want people to acknowledge there are times and places where this security is appropriate. It becomes a common ground of
safety that we can all build on.
I get no pleasure from "I told you so's" after a gun tragedy. What I want is fewer gun tragedies. What I want is for politicians who make it easier for those tragedies to happen to acknowledge the protection they would deny others.
Maybe someday I'll make that viral video. Of course I might not be able to see it right away unless they have WiFi in jail. Now back to the event, Ben Carson is speaking and he's just bound to say something just CRAZY!