As the city of St. Louis rubs its collective hands together preparing to welcome what one local barkeep calls “red-blooded Americans with good American money,” TTAG’s gearing up to carpet bomb the NRA Annual Meeting with the kind of coverage the Armed Intelligentsia has come to know and expect. And if you can’t stroll the aisles yourself, it’s probably just as well. With 70,000 gun lovers in town combined with the Cardinals’ season-opening series with the the small bears of the north and a couple of hockey playoff games, hotel rooms, cabs and toasted ravioli will be at a premium. But your faithful correspondents are undaunted, ready to bring you news of the industry’s latest and greatest right along with the face-palmingly stupid and inane. Not to mention booth babes. Don’t forget the booth babes. [ED: Nick will have other responsibilities.]

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15 COMMENTS

  1. ED: Nick will have other responsibilities.

    Read that again.

    I’m not familiar with the NRA Annual Meeting. Is it a little like SHOT, where new products and the like are announced?

  2. I eagerly look forward to your coverage of the NRA show. You guys did an AMAZING job at the shot show this year!

  4. Where is the dislike button! I so need a vacation..
    Hockey and guns all in the same place, I think I would loose myself for a bit.. 🙂
    Looking forward to the coverage.
    Also as a personal note, I would like to know if there is any movement regarding NRA taking on the silly legislation in CA?
    I ask because I am a resident. My parents who are liberal, or I should state more just anti gun because I don’t think ones political affiliation should necessarily represent your stance on guns, feel no one should have guns.
    I was trying to explain to them how stupid laws regarding high capacity magazines, and detachable magazines, BMG .50, etc are. They didn’t understand.
    I told them a properly trained person can be deadly accurate with speed loaders and a revolver, and really makes no difference.
    Illegal activities with guns are just that and I would bet 99% of those guns are bought on the black market so really it makes no difference what the legal gun owner has or doesn’t have.
    A good example would be that bank robbery in LA in 1997. These guys had illegal guns by most definitions, i.e. fully automatic, tons of ammo, and body armor. The police had to go to a couple of local gun dealers to get bigger guns! No amount of legislative dogma could have stopped it, and it wasn’t until SWAT got there that they were finally able to do something. The tragedy in Oakland a few weeks back is another example. A person who had legally bought a CA legal pistol went on a rampage. So what’s next, ban all 45 cal pistols just because a guy used one in a crime? Armed security or CCW laws that made sense might have not totally stopped it but might have decreased the damage at least.
    One thing I would like to see is the NRA pushing their safety and gun shooting courses. I would like to see them putting a better foot forward to work with state and local governments to provide education to adults and children alike.
    Franklin D. Roosevelt said “The only thing we have to fear is fear itself”, and he was right. We have uneducated government officials passing vague or silly laws out of fear. In some case like the SYG laws they are vague as well and that is a different issue. They see the NRA as the giant evil who wants every man woman and child to have an AK-47 in their possession.
    I think the NRA needs to stop the rhetoric and start with education, training, and working with government officials to show them errors etc, and get laws back into something well reasonable. I would like to see reasonable CCW laws in CA as well, right now it almost isn’t even worth applying unless you know you are pre-approved, and I am not sleeping with the local Sheriff, no matter how much you pay me! 🙂
    Better yet I would like to see federal laws supersede precedence over local state! This would make essentially all states equal on what is legal, what isn’t and also cover all CCW so if you have one you are covered in all 50 states.
    Ok off my soap box…

    • The SAF is currently challenging the CA AWB in federal court.

      While the NRA does support lawsuit activity — yes it does, NRA haters, and sometimes very well — it’s main function is to send out annoying solicitations and beg for money lobby for legislation and regulatory changes. The SAF lawyers are the real shock troops of the 2A movement.

      • Thanks for the clarification Ralf. In any case having them work on their own PR would be a good thing. I think a lot of folks gun owners alike have been getting turned off from the NRA.

    • They are working on it, but I would suggest a more immediate personal solution: GTFOO the PRCa. Move to Free America!

      And the NRA convention is, indeed, a kind of a SHOT show for civilians. You will need a bicycle or a powereed wheelchair to see everything in one day without collapsed arches. Wear comfortable hiking boots, and be sure to ask for a lapel pin at every gun-makers booth.

  5. Is there a ban on concealed carry at the convention? It’s kind of like that one beer commercial. I don’t normally drink beer, but when I do, I drink (whatever brand it is). Well I don’t normally go in to St. Louis City, but when I do, I go armed!

    • Taurus – yes the convention center bans guns. Unfortunately there aren’t a whole lot of venues the NRA can choose from, given its requirements, so they do what they think they must. Please note: This in no way means I agree with them!

        • Actually Mikebgazzilionnumbers, it’s the venue that bans guns, not the NRA, so go back to hiding in the corner!

          • I didn’t say it was the NRA.

            But, what does it mean? Are all the attendees going to allow themselves to be sitting ducks in a gun free zone? I thought that was the problem with college campuses. Isn’t that why it’s so important to be able to carry a gun everywhere you go?

  6. Nick will have other responsibilities.

    I will selflessly take one for the team and throw myself on that grenade!

  7. concealed carry was allowed last year at Pittsburg. 70 thousand plus people and no shootings, just a nice and friendly gathering

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