The open and concealed carry of guns and knives was generally legal and accepted at the NRA Annual Meeting of 2018. There was one obvious exception. The Leadership Forum had both President Donald Trump and Vice President Mike Pence speaking to a packed crowd.
The Secret Service took over jurisdiction and forbade the carrying of guns and knives into the forum. Not just knives and guns, but a long list of items were forbidden. Items you might not consider as obvious. It was a rainy morning on May 4th in Dallas. Lots of people had umbrellas. The Secret Service did not allow umbrellas into the forum.
Fortunately, Knife Rights has been providing a free public service for the last three NRA annual meetings. All of them featured presidential speeches at the Leadership Forum. For no cost, Knife Rights will check your knife, and give you a stub to be redeemed at the check booth after the forum. They also accepted other items on the forbidden list (sorry, no guns). On Friday, May 4th, they did a booming business checking umbrellas.
There were, of course, knives checked as well.
Doug Ritter of Knife Rights came up with the brilliant idea three years ago. The need was obvious. Who wants to park their vehicle, or take a shuttle from their hotel room, spend 15 minutes getting to the Leadership Forum, and another 15 minutes waiting in line, only to be told you cannot bring your pocket knife, umbrella, or mini-flashlight into the venue?
You are faced with a set of poor options. Spend half an hour retracing your steps, or discard a valuable piece of gear.
Doug and Knife Rights solved the problem for a lot of people with their free Knife Check. If you turned in your ticket at their booth on the floor of the exhibit hall, you had a chance to win a very nice Bowie knife for your trouble.
Circle Ten Council of the Boy Scouts of America, Troop 312 of Royse City, Texas, volunteered to provide the manpower to man the knife check station. They did what Boy Scouts are very good at, offering courteous, polite, efficient service.
It appears that knife checks will be at NRA annual meetings for the future. I cannot guarantee anything. The smart money is on President Donald Trump addressing future NRA Leadership Forums.
©2018 by Dean Weingarten: Permission to share is granted when this notice and link are included.
Gun Watch
I acknowledge and thank KnifeRights and the Boy Scouts during for the fantastic help they provide during these events.
ReplyDeleteYet, it IS Constitutionally-offensive when a government agency feels it has special powers to infringe 2A Rights merely by erecting a sign. If the Secret Service cannot assure the protection of the POTUS, then maybe the POTUS should just stay home.
I am reminded of a 4th of July Parade in North Plainfield NJ, ca1991. The infamous, most-reviled, 1-term Governor James "AW Ban" Florio was scheduled to be Grand Marshal, it being a highly 'Italian' community. The NJ State Police Executive Protection Unit told him they could not guarantee his safety, being fireworks and 4th of July celebrations go hand-in-hand and can sound so very much alike. He stayed home.