By Kristin M. Hall, AP
For weeks the National Rifle Association has been publicizing plans to hold a fundraising dinner at the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum where it planned to auction off firearms, even as many country music artists have distanced themselves from the gun rights organization.
But a spokesperson for the museum confirmed to The Associated Press that the April 17 event will not take place at the site after the AP asked questions about the museum’s no firearms policy. The NRA’s relationship with country artists and music organizations has fractured in recent years after several mass shootings, including one at a Las Vegas country music festival in 2017.
On Feb. 28, Kelly McGlumphy, the museum’s director of communications, confirmed to the AP that the museum’s policy prohibits firearms, loaded or unloaded, or other weapons, in the building whether visible or concealed. When asked how the policy affected the NRA’s plans for an auction that included firearms, McGlumphy, said that the museum was talking to the NRA about the auction.
Nearly a week later, on Thursday evening, McGlumphy told the AP that “following those discussions, the organization will not be holding their event at the museum.”
“The NRA was asked to change our firearms policy at our auction,” said Amy Hunter, director of media relations for the NRA. “We respectfully declined and made alternate arrangements at a venue with additional capacity. We would like to thank the Country Music Hall of Fame for their consideration.”
The NRA is holding its annual convention this April in downtown Nashville. Touted as one of the premiere events of the convention, the $500-per ticket NRA-ILA dinner and auction at the museum promised “celebrities, industry executives and a host of Second Amendment supporters from around the country.” The Institute for Legislative Action is the NRA’s lobbying arm. Last week, the NRA publicized that auction items would include “engraved firearms, suppressors, knives, fine art, hunts, optics and trips from around the globe.”
Previously, the NRA’s website for the fundraiser had an image of a woman displaying a rifle in a crowded room.
The museum, which calls itself “the Smithsonian of country music,” is one of the Nashville’s biggest tourist draws, bringing in a record 1.3 million visitors last year. The museum also rents out private event spaces.
The convention will still be held at the Music City Center, a nearby convention site.
For years, the NRA partnered with and publicized country artists as a part of a lifestyle marketing campaign called NRA Country. They promoted country artists on their website, paid for advertising for the artists and hired them to perform at NRA events.
NRA partnered with the Academy of Country Music in 2011 and 2012 to put on a celebrity shooting competition that was hosted by Blake Shelton and included artists like Luke Bryan, Montgomery Gentry and Justin Moore. In 2015, when the NRA last held its convention in Nashville, the organization sponsored an Alan Jackson concert and held NRA Country Jam, a free concert featuring Hank Williams Jr. and Colt Ford.
“Part of it is buying friends. They are supporting artists, giving them money, tour support, basically hiring them to play at events,” said Don Cusic, a Belmont University professor and country music historian.
Cusic said that in the wake of mass shootings, some country artists changed their tune about teaming up with the NRA — privately and more publicly.
“They went from seeing the NRA as an opportunity in terms of marketing, publicity and tour support money to a big liability,” Cusic said. “And they are going to avoid that. They aren’t going to say it out loud, but they’re gonna have a private meeting.”
Certain country artists have been vocal on gun control. Tyler Hubbard of Florida Georgia Line, the hit duo that NRA Country once publicized on its website, called for universal background checks on firearm sales in 2018 and faced a backlash from gun rights supporters.
Eric Church, in a Rolling Stone interview, said he blamed the NRA for blocking legislation with its lobbyists and control over lawmakers. Country music couple Tim McGraw and Faith Hill called for “common sense” gun control legislation, and Rosanne Cash wrote an op-ed in the New York Times asking country musicians to publicly stand up to the NRA’s efforts to form an alliance with the country music audience.
The NRA Country website that once listed dozens of country artists now doesn’t name any artist.
Fortuitous. Anyone attending in 6 weeks will be guaranteeing infection. Conferences arehave already been canceled by the dozen.
Oh, that ‘bug’ is gonna have an interesting impact around election time, I bet. I’ve heard it mentioned viruses like that can return in about 6 months after the initial ‘wave’, and round two can be more virulent than the first wave.
The people (Leftists) in crowded cities staying home out of fear of infection or re-infection, depressing Leftist turnout, while in flyover it won’t be as bad…
Hey, we talking guns here, go read the rules.
Agree
The difference, jack-wad, is that I talk guns. You don’t.
Suck on it… 🙂
No thanks, I never accept online sexual advances. This is wrong forum for that kind of proposition. Aren’t you the old man that screams like a child when other people post off topic?
Awwww, look at the little troll, his mommie let him have the WiFi password.
Pssst!
You ought to try an on-line proposition, it makes for a dandy way to save serious cash on vacation… 😉
It’s a cold Geoff.
*not sure if completely uninformed head in the sand dolt, or sarcastic*
It’s a Chinese weapon that got loose Dinsdale. It has all the earmarks of a biological weapon and I know a little about what I speak. I didn’t carry a gun in the military.
My money’s on garden-variety unimaginative dolt, 16V.
The troll quality in TTAG has fallen off the cliff straight to pathetic… 🙂
This corona virus idiocy is going to go away when the Democrats/globalists/media realize it can’t be effectively weaponized to damage Trump.
Who reminds you to breath Mr Biden? That post is so moronic it pathetic.
Not sure what you mean, but based on your other postings, I’ll only say enjoy the paranoia for this utter non-event. The media has whipped everyone into a frenzy over what will amount to almost nothing. Again. Those heralding this as the second Black Death are fever dreamers.
It attacks boomers the most, it kills them the most. People in the cities are less likely to die from it because they have the needed medical care. It’s the rural boomer that is at higher risk.
In Washington, the virus killed 16 (that we know of through tests), at least 13 deaths came from an old folks home. About 40% of the staff were infected. The nursing home said 26 residents died since February, their normal average death rate is 3-7 a month. 13 out of 15 that died at the hospital tested positive for the virus. 11 more residents died at the nursing home but no info about them being tested after death. They now have 63 out of 120 residents prior to the virus entering the area.
Most NRA members are old. It’s not a good idea for them to hang out in areas where the virus can spread to them. The outbreak is just getting started. Generation X and Boomer need to rethink attending any event where numerous people gather in one room and many people touch items you will touch. Shot Show would be a horrible idea for X and Boomer to attend — all those guns they touch can easily spread the virus to thousands and the virus easily spreads through the air (as non Asians don’t like to wear masks).
I already had a bunch of mask for this. I was contemplating making a lot of money selling them or keeping them for myself and family. I think I will just keep them considering the people around me.
Apparently people at CPAC have COVID-19. They interacted with politicians, some of those politicians were in contact with Trump. Ted Cruz is quarantining himself to protect other politicians.
I don’t think Trump has to worry about dying from the virus.
The NRA has to evaluate their future plans. They can’t afford to have events with all those old people having the possibility of exposure.
“It attacks boomers the most, it kills them the most.”
“facts” not in evidence. Idiots repeating old wife tails of “just like the flu”.
The only decent data is from the Japan cruise ship (the chicoms lie). Under 21 impacted at same rate as over 80.
““facts” not in evidence. Idiots repeating old wife tails of “just like the flu””
Maybe I misunderstood your meaning, but ..
As of early on March 8th, — 15 of the US’s 19 WuFlu deaths, to date, were from the same old folks home (Life Care Senior Center) in Washington state.
For the record, that’d be 79% .. and doesn’t, per se, exclude the other 4 people from being seniors too, simply that the other 4 were in other locations.
Hey Geoff, how ya been? Anyway, run the numbers, this is exponential, with an R0 of 3-7 (probable higher). Barring something that has not happened anywhere in the world – November? Hell, by mid-May hospitals will be way past maxed-out. By November? Ugh, I don’t want to think about it.
I merely brought this up as an aside, you current crop of do gooders. That TTAG isn’t talking about guns in the context of the emerging pandemic is beyond me. Oh well.
Japan didn’t need guns after their nuclear meltdowns. They needed masks and clean water.
The people at most at risk are old. When they die their guns are free for the taking. From their cold dead hands. Who gets to them first? How many X and Boomers got their will and trust in order?
Imagine if some cult decided to infect themselves and go to a gun show. If this virus is still around come next Shot Show it will be a huge risk. I heard a Korean cult was responsible for spreading the virus in Korea. People be crazy and will do anything.
“Hey Geoff, how ya been?”
Been OK, hope you are the same. If this one has a second wave, it could prove deadlier than round one, by historic pandemic context.
Earth’s long overdue for a good culling.
Ask Dan for my mail addy, I may be up your way at year’s end…
I’m about SICK TO DEATH of your CONSTANT BS banter….
Go back to your kiddie porn and leave the normal people alone….
Have you recently checked in with the sexual deviants probation office?…. weirdo
People over 45 have to worry the most, especially if they were/are smokers. The virus goes after the organs. It generally leads to permanent lung damage. It can cause death from respiratory issues. It’s highly contagious, it is said to have a HIV like structure, appearing to be man made. Another hint at it being artificial is how it binds to a receptor Asians have more than other peoples. It has been around since at least December.
Boomers have to be very careful, they are at the highest risk of catching it and dying from it. Generation X could die from it if they haven’t lived a healthy lifestyle. Kids are very unlikely to get it or die from it. If you get infected and recover, you could still get sick again after your first recovery, it keeps attacking.
So I hear…
It doesn’t have an HIV like structure. If that were true it wouldn’t survive on non-porous surfaces for up to nine days.
It displays features of numerous other coronaviruses that come from a wide enough range of species that it’s unlikely that this disease could arise naturally without having been seen before, so yes, it was probably made by people either intentionally or accidentally.
As you said, it has various traits that appear to be man made. I mentioned one trait. You should look into HIV to understand what I was hinting at.
I have heard they are testing HIV medication to fight off the virus in those infected. They claim it’s working.
Israel claims they know how to create a vaccine for it.
Don’t confuse them with actual science, he’s still choosing to believe nonsense that it will miraculously disappear when summer comes, or that a vaccine is 2 months out, or some other hopium being dripped out to keep the children calm…
I don’t need to go look at bullshit. COVID-19 is an enveloped and protein spiked virus Coronavirus where HIV is an enveloped retro virus. They’re both single sense RNA viruses and that’s pretty much where the similarities end.
HIV and other enveloped viruses require a host to make the envelope that protects them. They’re poor at survival outside a host. This is spiked to physically protect the envelope, which is completely different.
Coronaviruses are their own family of virus for a reason. Saying it’s like HIV is wrong on so many levels that it’s laughable. It’s like saying dogs and a platypus are similar because they’re both mammals.
Did you look up the reports of the medications they are testing to see if it works?
You act as if you know about the virus more than the people that may have created it.
Do you know how HIV came around?
It’s weaponized virus. It has all the traits of one. A long incubation period and highly contagious. That way one infects a lot of others without having symptoms.
There is a study that says by May 18, every hospital bed in the United States will be filled by a Corona Virus patient.
The Chines let one loose by accident.. And it’s going to be a bitch. But it;s not the 1918-1919 flu.
OK, taking this down to laymans terms:
Yes I know what meds they’ve used in serious situations. Broadly they’ve tried two. Essentially Tamiflu, which didn’t work, and the antiretroviral cocktail used for HIV which was successful. Now, this set of drugs suppresses the ability of HIV to reproduce by blocking it’s ability to move from cell to cell. This is done by blocking the protein cascade that HIV uses to open it’s attack and hijack a cell. However, that protein cascade attack is in not unique to HIV. It reproduces in the same manner as other positive sense RNA viruses (ss RNA+). The method of reproduction that is attacked is that of ss RNA + viruses, NOT that of HIV specifically.
It is unlikely that if this disease is engineered that they would have used a retrovirus such as the one found with HIV due to the fact that HIV is very slow to reproduce and has chronic symptoms (Lentivirus is the classification) and infections versus the acute nature of what we see here. Simply put if this were based on HIV there are two things we can say for sure, first it wouldn’t reproduce as fast as it does and cause the acute symptoms that we see. Secondly, it wouldn’t have the physical structure of a Coronavirus in terms of the protein spikes that protect the envelope of the virus.
Confusion here is understandable since both Tamiflu and antiretrovirals usually used in the treatment of HIV have been applied in an effort to cure COVID-19 however, the name of the drug should not be used as an indicator for the progenitor virus that hypothetically was used to engineer COVID-19 because any positive sense RNA virus will use the same method of reproduction and what many antiviral drugs target is viral reproduction. So any virus that reproduces in this manner has the potential to be inhibited by that set of drugs.
In this case the antiretroviral drugs they’ve used here, which were successful, are not widely tested on other viruses outside the Lentivirus family (HIV for example) very specifically because it’s cost prohibitive to do so. In other words, the fact that those drugs were used and were used successfully doesn’t mean as much you seem to think it does. To say that the fact that those drugs were, in this case, successful and that this means a link to HIV is irresponsible at best.
Retroviruses are a form of single sense RNA positive viruses. However, all those viruses reproduce in the same manner so there’s no particular reason to think that the other diseases that are ss RNA+ wouldn’t be affected by those drugs, here’s a list of them: https://viralzone.expasy.org/294
For more information I suggest Virology: Molecular Biology and Pathogenesis by Leonoard C Norkin. Or, do what I did and marry a labrat microbiologist.
If you don’t want to spend a ton on actual books:
Coronavirinae: https://viralzone.expasy.org/785?outline=all_by_species
Retroviridae: https://viralzone.expasy.org/71
Unfortunately what is happening in Florida where it is in the 80s should tell people that this isn’t going away when it gets a bit warmer.
Same reason I don’t listen to Jason Aldean any more. WIMP.
Check out Ryan Weaver. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CnuRqHMqxF4
This knee-jerk mealy mouth logic that when a crime is commited with a firearm every gun owner and gun store and gun manufacturer and the NRA is responsible is nothing but pure slanderous BS. It’s as ridiculous as holding beer drinking country songs liabel for crimes related to drunk drivers, etc.
Sounds like the NRA found a bigger, better place for the meeting.
Literally across the street.
Show business. Country music has been co-opted into Hollywood. If you do not tow the party line, you do not get the gigs.
My niece used to work for the Trump modeling agency; she was an event planner. She told me how the models, and everyone else working for the Trump agency, were being ‘informed’ they would never again work in ‘fashion’ unless they left Trump employment.
Today’s country music artists are no different than hip hop rappers
John, you have that right. Sometimes I can’t tell the difference. Don’t listen anymore. Sure as shit don’t buy.
Gadsden and John W have it right. I don’t know what it is, but I know what it ain’t, it ain’t country music!
You don’t have to read it…just skip past it, 😉
Hey! No fair! That was a response to a post that no longer exists!
Good. Money would all go to LaPierre, not rights.
Do you check under your bed every night to ne sure wayne isn’t ther
I do creepy old white men tend to hide there.
Who needs country music “artists” anyway. Most are “all hat and no cattle” anyway…
The NRA could have been flexible and agree to auction off tubs of yogurt; it would have been almost the same.
When Loretta Lynn says what is packaged today as country music. Is no longer Country Music. Nuff Said…
As for the NRA. Same Same.
Country music died when Billy Ray Cyrus, Tim McGraw, and Garth Brooks became ‘country’ musicians.
Agreed. There’s a reason Ken Burns series ends with Garth Brooks. He killed Country Music with his highwire act.
“New country”…ugh. Sorry I’m dropping my NRA membership when it expires in May. Get rid of old,corrupt and rich Wayne & I’ll reup. Putting my meager discretionary income into fighting for ILLinois. All this idle chatter about the plaug er virus. They sure wanna shake hands at my large Baptist church!😖
I hear ya. Shit is getting ridiculous. I did not notice it until I got home, but I bought 300 rounds of ammunition yesterday and paid a 5 cent a round tax…. wtf?????
I buy ALL my ammo in Indiana Ironhead. I live a mile away. Got 160 rounds of 223 at Cabelas for a good price(and 7% tax). And the other nearby Indiana gunshops sure appreciate my business(and don’t ask for ID!). I will not comply!
THINK WAYNE’S $20,000 SUIT MIGHT HAVE BEEN A FACTOR???
When I first read the title, I thought it was going to be about the ‘bug’ going around now but no.
Regardless, attending rallies or gatherings of any sort sounds like a bad idea for the time being.
Artists change when they sign their name on the dotted line.
Someone owned. It is no different with any other genre. It’s the same with rock bands. It’s the same for actors and actresses of tv and movies.
Petty just wants to race and get glory for winning. That’s it. Anything else is for show. Bruce Springsteen is not about the quintessential red-blooded American male. He is an icon just for show. He is there for “the look”. Regardless of his song lyrics.
There are some that might have a political agenda (like Madonna) but they are all for show. The NRA is fooling itself if they actually believe country singers in general have the 2nd Amendment in their hearts. Many just want money and will follow what MCA tells them to do, as per contract. Far too many people attribute to them ideals that are only there on the surface to sell tickets. They are for entertainment only.
I will be in nashville for the NRA convention. I was there in 2015 for that convention. The comparison between the two will be interesting.
Well I chew my skoal and spit it in a cup. Boots yehaa boots yehaa. I drink cheap beer and then I throw up. Boots yehaa boots yehaa. My wife run off with the rodeo clown, messin around with every guy in town, stole my saddle and my horse too, I looked at my rope and said”WHAT WE GONNA DO”,,, WELL I chew my skoal and I spit it in a cup… Country Western has gone to CRAP( country +rap) CRAP
I agree about what C&W has become – today’s country music is all sappy love songs (no more music about mama, prison, cheating, pickup trucks, trains, &c.) and sounds like 70s rock (with the infusion of a little fiddle and steel guitar) to me. Hell, most of the C&W artists aren’t from the South – they sing with twangy accents, but when they talk they sound like they’re from Worcester, Mass.
As for the NRA-ILA getting kicked out of the Country Hall of Fame, they should realize that nobody is their friend, and that when political correctness and corporate moguls speak, there is no loyalty and that past relationships don’t matter. The NRA should take that into account in all future dealings.
Used to, you could tell who was singing a country song just by their voice….these days, not so much.
The NRA doesn’t need to be associating themselves with country music acts anyway. Most of them are nothing but Nashville Pop. Florida Georgia Line? That is just a travesty. Anything with that name should have a flavor of Allman Bros. or at least Skynrd. Just my opinion.
Skynyrd hasn’t been the same since The Bee Gees shot down their charter…
McGraw and Hill have been anti gun for a long time. I wil not listen to them nor watch them onf TV. They need ot go the way of the Dixie Chicks! And I bet Johnny Cash is turning over in his grave. Modern country music is not conuntry music. I only listen (on the radio) to oldies – the good older singers like Willie Nelson, George Jones, Loeretta Lynn, etc.
I wanted to post about hte “Country Music Stars distancing themselves from the NRA but, the amount of asshats screaming CoronaVirus is too much for me…
Grazie per aver condiviso l’ottimo articolo.
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