If you would believe the logic the NRA has used to justify guns everywhere from inside capitol buildings to bars to schools, more guns equal more safety. With that premise, one would think an NRA convention – a place where thousands of gun-owners congregate to buy, sell, and talk weaponry – would be the safest place in the world. The NRA disagrees. In fact, they’d rather you kept your guns at home, please.
The NRA, America’s largest gun lobbying group, is planning to hold its annual convention this week in Nashville. According to planners, over 70,000 proud good guys (and girls) with guns are expected to show up. As always, attendees will hear talks from celebrities, politicians, former Alaskan half-term governors, and gun-rights advocates, while a massive arena will be filled with vendors.
Oddly, the NRA has decided that it wouldn’t feel safe allowing 70,000 people packing heat to mill about. According to local paper The Tennessean, the organization put together a plan that they say will keep people safe – namely, “no guns.”
A multilevel security plan went into works not long after Nashville was chosen as the convention destination. All guns on the convention floor will be nonoperational, with the firing pins removed, and any guns purchased during the NRA convention will have to be picked up at a Federal Firearms License dealer, near where the purchaser lives, and will require a legal identification.
In other words: no working guns on the property and required registration procedures for all gun purchases. They’ve also reportedly paid over $200,000 for extra security. If those seem like relatively tame requirements around so many lethal weapons, then you haven’t been paying attention lately.
It will be interesting to see whether the gun rights movement handles these rules well; after all, these are the very same folks who “exercised their Second Amendment rights” by intentionally walking into restaurants armed to the teeth to prove a point about the “right” to open carry anywhere they please.