Author: Bitter

Sebastian and I have been talking about how we rank Indianapolis on our list of host cities. Apparently, one man in the Smith & Wesson booth told a reporter that the city has the “smell of freedom.” Um, I’ll assume he’s not talking about the smell coming out of the grates near one corner of our hotel’s property because that’s sewage, not freedom.

Regardless of the one area that requires holding your breath for a bit as you walk by, Indy has been a pretty decent city for the convention. There are tons of hotels in walking distance, and the skywalk system meant that rain on Friday wasn’t an issue at all. However, the prices for food and beverage – mainly beverage – have been pretty outrageous. Every bar we’ve passed or been in around here has crappy beers for $5+ per glass. However, the food has been consistently excellent. We haven’t had one mediocre meal here.

I didn’t go between official events at the convention center and any other location beyond the JW Marriott, which is connected to the convention center, so I don’t know how the walk compared for those who did attend the multiple events. Generally, I really hate that set up, so it’s probably a good thing for my perception of the city that I didn’t attend those other events.

Other than Claddagh Irish Pub that put up a big sign telling gun owners who carry that they weren’t welcome, every other place had chalkboards and other signs posted welcoming NRA members. And based on how many people we saw sporting NRA & gun-related apparel, those welcoming joints were doing pretty well.

While I’ve had a pretty decent time in Indy, I would put it in the middle of the list of decent host cities. Considering that, according to Sandy Froman, NRA hasn’t held a convention here since 1976, it’s done very well in terms of getting people through the doors and onto the show floor. There’s a ton of parking around the area and many great places to stay.

Indy has been far better than cities like Charlotte, NC (too expensive), Pittsburgh, PA (terrible traffic management) and Louisville, KY (too spread out), but not quite as good as Phoenix, AZ (great layout) and Houston, TX (fantastic facilities). One big drawback to Indy that was also an issue in St. Louis is the presence of overly aggressive panhandlers. One person I know here posted on Facebook about the issue, and also included that he wasn’t so sure the person was that hard up when they pulled out a cell phone and started chatting up someone.

Overall, it was a good annual meeting. I hope that the numbers we hear later this morning show that others thought the same thing.

Sunday is usually the most relaxing day of the show because the crowds ease up from Saturday and there aren’t as many long events to squeeze in as Friday. But, let’s talk crowds at this year’s NRA Annual Meeting. Sebastian and I both observed that this year’s crowds were so much younger than previous years. We saw far more women, more tattoos, more unique piercings, and even more mohawks. This was not the old, white boring guy convention that the media would like to portray.

For us, Sunday meant spending well over an hour going up and down the collector aisles. Sebastian already covered highlights of this visit, but it is always the section we’re most excited to see these days.

Walking out of the collector section, we did come across quite an interesting show special – free lobsters.

Sunday is also the day when many people who have been tied up in other events are finally able to make it to the floor. At one point, we stopped to talk to Sandy Froman, past NRA president. Even NRA presidents have the same issues we have as on the ground members – not enough time to shoot the guns we already own! After spending a little more time at the Smith & Wesson booth, Sebastian said hello to Molly Smith who he initially met years ago at Gun Blogger Rendezvous.

Off of the floor, we took some time to talk to Phil Schreier who is Senior Curator at the Firearms Museum which had a great set up in the NRA booth at Annual Meeting this year. It’s still amazing how the idea to put up a video about an old air rifle in their collection has resulted in 3.7 million views on YouTube.

We also finally caught up with David & Colleen Lawson, co-plaintiffs in McDonald v Chicago and now of Lawson Handgun Institute, and heard about the successful training programs they are now running in Chicago.

At some point, we crashed before dinner at St. Elmo’s Steak House which we had recommended to us many, many times. Since we also saw other NRA Annual Meeting attendees posting about their visit the place during the weekend, we figured we should check it out.

Speaking of food, I forgot to mention another highlight from the previous day. We caught a quick bite to eat with our Grassroots Coordinator at NRA for our election volunteer efforts, and the grub at Pearl Street Pizzeria & Pub was definitely delicious. I had a small pizza with pear, gorgonzola, arugula, and balsamic vinegar that was delicious. We didn’t see any kind of postings, though they didn’t have any signs greeting NRA members, either. Granted, they are also located in an alley, so it’s not like there’s much room. Regardless, it was worth mentioning because we haven’t had anything bad here in Indy. The drinks are pretty pricey at most places ($5 even for beers that might as well be water, much more for anything better), but the food has been great.

Unfortunately, there was kind of a downer to the evening with local tv news revising estimates for attendance down to 50,000 people – a number that I don’t think has ever been an estimate for any year I’ve been attending (since 2004). I hope that was a mistake report, but things in our hotel aren’t looking good. Both bars advertised that they were supposed to be open until midnight this evening, but they both appear to have closed up early due to lack of business. It’s tough to use that as a judge though since there are sooooo many places to eat and drink within a short walking distance, which isn’t that common in many convention towns.

I suppose we’ll have an idea of the overall impact of this year’s Annual Meeting tomorrow at the board meeting. Keep an eye out on Twitter for our up to the minute reports of the numbers.

I have to say that I haven’t been perfectly great about actually doing the live blogging because the opening the actual Meeting of Members has been one of the best I’ve ever seen. It was funny and sweet, and really reminded me of the great PEOPLE that make up our real grassroots movement.

Amazingly, Wayne did not screw up the the Youngest NRA Life Member contest. There were lots of folks standing when he started at those who were born in 2004 or later, but it went into 2014 and enough people were still standing that Wayne joke, “we’re going to need the delivery room here.” The youngest life member has been a member for 5 days and was born in February. The family is from Spring, Texas, and based on the cheers, it seems there’s quite the contingent from Texas here today.

The Oldest Life Member is from Richmond, Indiana and was born in 1927. He advised the audience that the best thing a man can acquire is “a great wife” and insisted his wife be recognized. He said that he went hunting in Africa as recently as September 2013, and he never goes on a hunt unless his wife can go with him. Of course, you don’t get that age without getting at least a little ornery, so he did put up a fight with Wayne’s assistant Millie, insisting that he couldn’t possibly be the oldest man here. :)

It’s a reasonably full hall this year, though the rest of the convention center isn’t quite as full as last year. Then again, I’m not sure it’s realistic to expect the same crowds from last year. (I can’t get up to the front for a picture so that crowd shot is only about half of the hall.)

NRA President Jim Porter is talking about the political landscape, noting that we haven’t won every battle, but we’ve certainly improved the gun law situation on many fronts. He also notes we’re not done fighting, and we need to do it come November. Jim is remembering his father, a former NRA president, and getting a bit choked up over it. He’s also mentioning the infamous “Cincinnati Revolt” and noting that it’s a great thing they got political instead of just being a form of national hunt club. He notes that the NRA didn’t even have a single lobbyist at the time, so not a single lawmaker was really reached about the problems of the law.

Porter comes back around to the people of the issue. He talks about the fastest growing segment of the organization and shooting community – women. He is also dedicating part of his speech to Otis McDonald, whose funeral he recently attended. He noted that even the Chicago media even had to take note of Otis McDonald’s fight for freedom and motivation:

In an interview with the Tribune after winning the suit, Mr. McDonald said the journey had been a lesson in history. He had come to understand more about his ancestors and the “slave codes” enacted in Southern states during the Civil War that prohibited slaves from owning guns. After slavery was abolished, states adopted “black codes” that kept guns out of the hands of freed blacks.

“There was a wrong done a long time ago that dates back to slavery time,” he said in the interview. “I could feel the spirit of those people running through me as I sat in the Supreme Court.”

Wayne’s speech is a bit more culture war, but not full on SoCo by any means. He is just noting a loss of community where we’re more disconnected, there’s less civility, and the notion that there’s a perception that average, decent Americans don’t have a fair shot even before the rule of law because power is so regularly abused by elites. If he can stay away from the “good guy with a gun” line, I think I might actually like this speech a bit better than most. However, the anti-media theme is getting really old. (Apparently, the anti-media rhetoric was really over the top yesterday, according to folks I followed on Twitter.) I know that many members of the MSM are hostile, but there’s only so much you can blame on other people. We need to turn that message into something more positive – encourage these average American NRA members to participate in the “horizontal interpretive communities,” as Prof. Brian Anse Patrick calls them, or self-created communication circles (online and offline) as we know them.

The Ack-Mac videos that Wayne has debuted are going over extremely well with the members. I’ll post them when I’m not working off of my cell phone data plan. :)

Okay, humor moment for me in Wayne’s speech. Whoever wrote his speech decided to try and paraphrase Dylan Thomas, but ended up putting in an exact quote from Independence Day’s president played by Bill Pullman, “We will not go quietly into the night!” I have to say, Pullman gave it more growl and feeling in his delivery.

Alan Cors is talking about the successes of ILA under Chris Cox’s leadership. He is noting that even with major court successes, those were possible with the election strategies to elect people who would appoint pro-Second Amendment justices and Senators who would confirm them.

Chris Cox is up and highlighting the obnoxious school cases like the pop tart case and the many t-shirt cases. Now, on to Bloomberg and his “heaven” quote. “I actually don’t know which is bigger, [Bloomberg’s] bank account, his arrogance, or his hypocrisy.” Chris’s speech is highlighting Bloomberg’s Illegal Mayors. That’s messaging that came straight from the pro-gun blogosphere and grassroots.

More importantly, in my opinion, is highlighting the work of actual grassroots activists like Sarah Merkle and Shyanne Roberts, both of whom are here and received a long standing ovation. Then he started introducing many of the Colorado recall activists who received another long standing ovation. Those guys deserve to be stopped for a handshake by every NRA member on the floor.

One of the best lines from Chris’s speech is something that I think most of us want to identify with, “We’re Republican, Democrat, Independent, and most days, none of the above.” In fact, to be honest, the crowd responded more to Chris’s speech than Wayne’s. I hope that it means people here really are fired up to go home and do some traditional political activism to win some elections in November.

The report of the election committee is up, so I’ll do a quick summary here with a detailed post to follow. More than 1.8 million ballots were mailed out. The top vote getter is Tom Selleck, followed by Peter Printz who beat out R. Lee Emery. My quick calculations show that there are more than 145,000 MORE life members or have been members for 5 or more years consecutively over last year. However, participation in the NRA board election has dropped a bit with only 6.8% of voting members returning a ballot.

One resolution was introduced from a New Jersey benefactor member. It seems to be some kind of complaint about Sen. Dianne Feinstein’s comments during hearings that are perceived to be anti-veteran, as well as anti-gun. I understand the feeling behind it, but there’s not really a point. I think that Feinstein knows well enough that we don’t like her. It’s something that makes him feel good. Since it makes folks feel good, it’s passing overwhelmingly. Peter Printz supported it at the mic, bringing a little humor the event.

There was a hiccup with last year’s resolution to recognize non-citizen members of the NRA who support the right to bear arms, and that was taken care of with a quick point of order at the end.

And that’s it for 2014.

Technically, Day 1 of the National Rifle Association Annual Meeting & Exhibits in tomorrow, but we managed to get started a little early since we arrived early.

Before we even managed to make it to our first stop, we ran into Tom King of the NYSRPA. They have a booth here and are apparently planning a raffle for some gun. I’ll check it out when they are fully set up tomorrow. Then, we ran into Dave Adams from the VSSA who can always be counted on for fantastic insight into the Virginia legislative happenings. We actually discussed an issue that came up before their General Assembly dealing with releasing license records because it turns out the genealogy community was actually involved. Random, informative discussions all around, especially since we’re likely in the same boat as Virginia for a while – purely defensive with very little chance of pro-Second Amendment measures moving in Pennsylvania.

After that, we connected with Scott Bach of the ANJRPC while he was doing an interview on NRA News with Cam Edwards about the magazine ban in New Jersey. Seriously, we need to find some folks we know here who are from states where we can cheer some good news.

We actually did meet folks from Utah at GunAuction.com who could boost some spirits with the CLEO shall sign bill becoming law. We also talked about why some pro-gun issues just don’t get much support in a solidly pro-gun state where people don’t really feel like their rights are under serious threat.

Then, our evening took an interesting twist when we tried to go out to eat dinner. I had checked out Yelp reviews before we left for times when were looking for something in walking distance and found Claddagh Irish Pub. However, we discovered upon arriving that they thought a brilliant business decision during a gun rights convention would be to post against guns at the door. They are certainly free to do that, and we were free to turn around and walk up the street to The Weber Grill which had no such sign where we discovered AMAZING bbq. Seriously, it’s a little spendy for bbq, but worth every penny in every bite. I’m a little embarrassed at how quickly I inhaled my plate. Another thing I was free to do was to let people on Twitter following the #NRAAM tag know about the posting at the first joint. It just happened to get retweeted to a few thousand people talking about the convention…

After that, catching a drink ended up turning into a chance to talk to Prof. Robert Cottrol and Dave Hardy. I think that Sebastian may end up with some interesting post topics stemming from these discussions.

Tomorrow is the NRA Foundation Law Seminar, and I hear it’s going to be absolutely packed with pro-gun attorneys and other supporters. I have no doubt that will be interesting. Overall, Day 1 of our NRA convention experience was pretty good. It was mostly just catching up with people, and we clearly need to work harder to create more reasons to celebrate when we get together rather than mostly having to talk about why things are a struggle in many states. I think that’s a goal we can all drink to, something I’m sure I’ll do plenty of tomorrow!