No matter what you may have read, both 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 that featured President Donald Trump and Vice President Mike Pence speaking to a packed crowd.

The Secret Service took over jurisdiction over that event’s security arrangements and forbade the carrying of guns and knives into the forum. Not just knives and guns, but a long list of other items were forbidden, too. Items you might not have considered. It was a rainy day in Dallas and lots of people had umbrellas, but those too were considered contraband.

Fortunately, Knife Rights has been providing a free public service for the last three NRA annual meetings. All of them featured presidential or major party candidate speeches at the Leadership Forum. For no cost, Knife Rights checked any knives attendees were carrying. They also accepted other items on the forbidden list (sorry, no guns). And they did a booming business checking umbrellas.

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, spend 15 minutes getting to the Leadership Forum, and another 15 minutes waiting in line, only to be told you can’t bring your pocket knife, umbrella, or mini-flashlight (yes, those were out, too) into the venue?

You’d be 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. As a plus, if then stopped by their booth on the floor of the exhibit hall and turned in your stub, 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 a feature at NRA annual meetings for the foreseeable future. And given the reception he’s gotten here, the smart money is on President Trump addressing future NRA Leadership Forums.

©2018 by Dean Weingarten: Permission to share is granted when this notice and link are included.

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28 COMMENTS

  1. Good for them! The secret to success is sticking together. Even if we disagree among ourselves occasionally.

  2. Cool.

    Next, someone needs to develop a bank of firearm lockers (like at jails) that can be rolled in. People can pay their money and place their pistols, mags, etc. in the locker by themselves. No custody / transfer issues!

    • And after that, strip the Secret Service of any authority to disarm a US citizen. Rights don’t disappear when a government employee appears.

      • I posted before. How many Republicans have tried to kill democrats at baseball practice? Oh, that’s right! None! The secret service has the right and the obligation to ban weapons. Had they not done so the democrat anti-fa terrorists would have wreaked havoc! Stop being so obtuse!

        • Unless the Speaker of the House Paul Ryan was at the Game the USSS, won’t have been involved! Only the Speaker of the House gets USSS Protection. Other than HIM, security is done by the US Capitol Police…

        • Mike, the baseball thing occurred to me also. Did you notice how fast the story fell out of mainstream media when it was discovered he was a Billary Clinton supporter?

        • Hey Mike, who gave the Secret Service the “right” to ban weapons? Somehow the agents have an extra right I don’t have?
          “…the Leadership Forum that featured President Donald Trump and Vice President Mike Pence..” I wouldn’t follow either of these lying FUDD morons to so much as a titty bar! The NRA and the Republican party care not one bit about our gun rights. That was made more than obvious after that Sandy hook garbage happened and old Wayne LaPiere said he supported “universal background checks” until the membership kicked back on him…nevermind ol Trumpkin with his ” Take the guns first, worry about due-process later.” Bullshit. To hell with all these lying ass politicians…everyone needs to wake up and see we are being played for fools by the people and organizations that claim to have our best interests at heart. The NRA must be run by the French, because they too capitulate at the first sign of a battle.

        • The same one that gives the legislature the “right” to represent you and craft laws, or gives the judiciary the “right” to review and clarify in court legislation not understood clearly. Or the right of the of the executive to create executive orders to enforce the laws of the country crafted by Congress. It’s a duty of the agency, as appointed by the executive, to ensure the safety of particular leaders of government. It sucks, but it’s perfectly legal and supported by legal precedent and practice.

          The Gov oversteps it’s bounds all the time, but when the NRA accepted the Presidential visit offered, they accepted the security measures it brings. It’s the same reason that you and I can’t walk into the West Wing armed, or at all for that matter.

        • Really Mike? No answer to my question, just a link to the Secret Service wiki page. One sec ( gets out some crayons) WHAT GIVES THE S.S. THE RIGHT TO VIOLATE ONE OF MY RIGHTS DUE TO NOTHING BUT PROXIMITY TO AN ELECTED OFFICIAL? I understand that they DO it, and its their “policy”, my point is it doesn’t make it right…you seem to have no problem with it.

      • “+200 Million Thumbs up!” I didn’t know royalty was visiting and the knights of the realm banished the Vassals from keeping and bearing arms at a royal fumction !?!?

  3. I love the small acts of kindness generated by people, (organization’s) that help all involved.

  4. And why should this be a surprise to anyone! That the US Secret Services function. Try doing it at the Capitol Building in WDC., or the NRA building in Fairfax, VA. They won’t let you past the Security Lobby of the North Building, without a Thorough Search…

  5. Hmmm, somehow I missed that free check in Atlanta.

    Ended up stashing a knife in foliage of a big bench/planter.

    • Did that once at the smithsonian ’cause, you know, can’t allow a leatherman into the air and space museum.

    • I did the same when I recently visited the Library of Congress and had a tiny Swiss Army knife. And I when I say tiny, I mean tiny — the smallest knife they make with a 1 inch long blade.

      The funny thing is all of the Smithsonian museums and even the office building with several of our Congressman (all buildings with X-ray scanners) let it go through. I never imagined that the Library of Congress would have the most stringent requirements.

      • It’s possible the Library of Congress wasn’t taking your little knife just to disarm you.

        At the LOC, did your entry allow you to physically access the materials there, where the tiniest Xacto knife would work fine and dandy to cut pages out?

      • They need to strip search Billy Clinton worshippers smuggling docs OUT in their g string

  6. What a terrific service.
    I tip my hat to them and the Boy Scouts that did the work.

  8. That’s a keen idea, more to the point, cuts a lot of time, and slashes lthe hassle. A good way to hone your business.

  9. this would give Democrats a taste of their Shanghai-la, if they had the Co-hones too attend!

  10. The knife check was doing pretty brisk business afterwards with folks picking up their knives as we left. I was smart enough to know not to take my little Ladybug, have dealt with SS lots over the years.

    Before we were allowed to carry concealed at out statehouse the 2 guys at the door got used to asking me if they should hold my knife for me white I “visited”. That’s the way it should be, too, nice guys not trying to act like you’re a killer just because you forgot you had a 1 1/2″ pocket knife with you. Several times I had to return to the car to leave my little Glock, however, thought that might be pressing the relationship a bit.

    Asper Trump’s protection I’ll cut SS some slack. One thing’s for certain if you can talk to these folks away from the venue- they’re going to take REAL GOOD care of this guy.

  11. so who are going too protect the people, if a group of nut job’s decide they want’s too be Allah’s buddy!

    • If you’re referring to my post, there had to be 15K people in the arena to see Trump and Pence. I have a feeling some of us could’ve figured how to deal with a bad guy close at hand even if we didn’t have a gun or knife prior to SS snipers in the rafters and nooks and crannies you couldn’t even see from the floor. Hopefully they wouldn’t be shooting wildly into the vast crowd to take them out, I’m not sure what an armed response from within that crowd would look like if everyone had their EDC with them- People shooting in the direction of the perp from 100 feet away, also directly into the sea of spectators in the audience? Certainly a lot of panic even though everyone here would be steady and under control in the face of impending death and destruction…

      I’m much more concerned about bombs and WMD-typre devices in large congested gatherings like this. My EDC is useless against those. Do I like going into a situation like this unarmed? Nope. Was it worth it in this case? Yep, to me. My decision, my responsibility. No one made me go.

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