OK – just a small beef – the internet in the press room is terrible. Slow, I get bumped off, and did I mention it is slow? By being here, the new media press can extend the reach of the convention to millions (Bruce and I just had to douse Robert out of his ecstatic coma over today’s analytics traffic). Coal-fired, steam-powered internet connections is no way to take advantage of the new technology. Although the NRA seems to have no problem spitting out email and direct mail appeals at the speed of light. Just sayin’ . . .

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16 COMMENTS

  1. NRA needs to embrace the new media if they want to have a real membership in 10-20 years when all of their current 50-60 year old members are in retirement homes. NRA needs to make a comeback with youth kind of like the boyscouts, if they wait until after kids are brainwashed in College then its going to be too late.

    • I’m not saying it doesn’t happen, and this may just be a case of Texas Sensibility coloring my view, but the blanket statement of college students being brainwashed by liberals is bullsh*t. Most of my colleagues that have those liberal sensibilities were that way LOOOOOOOOOOOONG before they came here (ask me how I know).

      For that matter, just because someone ends up in college doesn’t mean liberal brainwashing is the only outcome. Plenty of conservatives that come to college stay that way. Hell, I didn’t actually have any decent exposure to gun culture until I was *in* college, and now I’ve proudly embraced it. I’ve even managed to convert once-liberal colleagues. And I know for a fact I’m not the only one.

      So with all due respect, if you want to continue stereotyping, go practice your “get off my lawn” speech.

      • Okay. How do you know “Most of my colleagues that have those liberal sensibilities were that way LOOOOOOOOOOOONG before they came here”?
        Seriously, I am asking out of pure interest in reading what you have to say about this matter.
        Thanks for your response.

        • During undergrad I was an English tutor at a small, private university (1500 people max) for a fair number of Freshmen (2 and 1/2 years of experience with four lab groups of varying size, rotated every semester + people who just dropped in for a one-time session). Here in grad school I run Freshmen courses. Both lines of work required getting to know these people. Between their papers and our conversations, I got a decent idea of people’s sensibilities in relation to their backgrounds (given the topics they had to write about, it was inevitable). I’ve also had the unfortunate “pleasure” of reading editorials from the younger people in my grad school’s paper—people that haven’t been there long enough to be indoctrinated. I read things on both sides of the philosophical/political spectrum from these people, and over the course of my (admittedly limited) time reference for each (usually a semester, sometimes up to a year), the convictions were already there and as a general rule didn’t change, regardless of conservative or liberal leanings.

          I will *readily* admit that I may have been a fortunate soul and went to institutes that were the exception to what everyone claims is the brainwashing rule, and my perceptions could be dead wrong. It’s just infuriating because every time I read a comment about liberal college brainwashing, I imagine some out-of-touch OFWG overgeneralizing college-age students as a lost cause, right or wrong. It’s as bad to me as the Brady Bunch et al. and their framing of gun owners, or even how some members of the A. I. flip out if they even suspect someone in the comments leans a little (or a lot) left. In all cases it’s a generalization issue, whether intentional or accidental. After this post, Bruce asked what can be done to diversify the gun community, and I feel like that tendency to generalize is part of what sabotages our expansion.

          Sorry about the rant. It’s just something that’s been on my mind lately (a commentator a month or so ago made a similar rant, and it had been stewing ever since). At any rate, those are my thoughts and feelings on the matter, for the $0.02 it’s worth.

        • Editor’s Note: When I say “my colleagues,” I’m using the strict definition of only the ones I personally met—not some broad sense of every college student in the history of ever.

          • Thanks. Even though I consider myself one of those possibly out of touch OFWG’s nowadays, it has been my perception that most people’s ideas and convictions are pretty much set by the time they are 18 or so. I based this on my experiences Supervising 18-22 year olds in a work environment during the 80’s and 90’s. I had a good relationship with most of my young employees and knew many of them well enough to know what they thought about a lot of subjects. I was supervising several scores of people at a time, so my base sample was large and diverse.
            Although I knew a few people whose ideas changed when they got into college, they were the minority, so I did not see this as College “brainwashing”, and don’t subscribe to that myth, either.
            I get greatly put-off by generalizations about people, as well, and HATE what I call “The Club Mentality” – aka “If you want to be in our Club, you must think exactly what we think and do exactly as we do, or else ‘piss-off’!”. Needless to say, I do a lot of “pissing-off” both literally and figuratively.
            Yes, I would admit my remark about “The Club Mentality” is a generalization, but (for me) a useful one, and would make no apology about it.
            Thanks for responding. I appreciate your $.02 worth.

  2. Are you using their computers? I would have thought you guys would bring your own laptops/notebooks whatever with Internet access.

    BTW, it’s almost 12PM EST that’s high-noon partner. Let’s see some pics of booth babe flesh or I’m going to go visit another site.

    • Uh, no. We bring our own computers. It’s the only way to fly. Unless you’re relying on a half-ass wi-fi system set up by an organization that could learn a thing or two from the NSSF.

    • Part of the job of planning a convention is making sure the venue provides what you need. Just Sayin’

      • Nah. If the NRA had done that, they’d have picked a city with venues that are gun-friendly.

      • Most convention centers cannot handle the amount of traffic a convention brings. In this day of wifi enabled smart phones, tablets, e-readers and kitchen sinks. I have been to some of the name brand tech conventions and run into that. Of course that’s why I use a portable pocket router w/ 4G access at conventions.

  5. If you travel enough to justify the cost, buy an air card from your phone provider. My dad has one on Sprint. I beleive he pays $50 a month for it. It plugs into a USB drive and he also has a router that it plugs into that creates a wi-fi hot spot at home. My parents live in their RV full time, so for them it’s great.

  6. I work in the digital entertainment industry and frequent electronics trade shows (CES, and one that overlapped with SHOT this year), I do this almost monthly, for a few years I was doing it monthly. These are shows where web and media companies show off web tech…
    Almost every company has developed a backup plan using either 4G modem or local streaming, or often just faking it because the $100 a day wired and wireless connections are worthless.

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