Inside Baseball - NRA

[Bartholomew Roberts]

A surprisingly good article that details the ways in which supposedly pro-gun control politicians kowtow to the NRA in order to host NRA conventions:
http://www.kansascity.com/news/natio...e98089767.html

For Texas members, Dallas mayor Mike Rawlins, even as he brokered the deal to bring the NRA convention back to Dallas, is one of the people mewling about the NRA in this piece. Maybe he should be held accountable at the next election?

[Armorer-at-Law]

If the city has the accommodations, the NRA meeting brings 70,000+ peaceful people in for three days who pay to park, eat and sleep. Every hotel in the area will be full. Studies have shown that crime drops during the meeting and the people tend not to tear things up, get drunk and rowdy, or litter. The NRA meeting is not about the "gun industry," it's about the people who buy them.

[Old Bill Dibble]

“Five officers were killed because of guns, and we are going to have a convention here about guns,” Rawlings

Oh really?

[carguychris]

Interesting – according to my Google-Fu, Rawlings' remarks have received exactly zero press coverage in the D/FW area.

FWIW the article originally ran in the Charlotte (NC) Observer.
http://www.charlotteobserver.com/new...e98049682.html

FYI, for D/FW residents, the section of the linked-news-story quote that I've underlined...

“Five officers were killed because of guns, and we are going to have a convention here about guns,” Rawlings said in an interview with the Observer. “Personally (the NRA convention) is not at the top of my list...

...refers to the Charlotte Observer, and not the (consistently left-wing) Dallas Observer.

[wccphd]

"...refers to the Charlotte Observer, and not the (consistently left-wing) Dallas Observer. "

Just an "FYI," The Charlotte Observer, along with its sister publication the News and Observer (Raleigh, NC) is extremely left-wing and over the top anti-gun. Basically to the point of being sickening.

[johnwilliamson062]

No law enforcement personnel were ever killed before firearms were developed...
Difficult for me to get excited about much of anything printed about firearms anymore. Same themes recycled over and over.

[carguychris]

Originally Posted by wccphd

Just an "FYI," The Charlotte Observer, along with its sister publication the News and Observer (Raleigh, NC) is extremely left-wing and over the top anti-gun.

Perhaps. I wouldn't know.

I didn't mean to imply anything about the Charlotte paper's political leanings; I was merely trying to point out to anyone in the D/FW area that the original link from the Kansas City Star was NOT referring to the Dallas paper coincidentally also named the Observer.

Sour grapes over the Charlotte NRA convention would explain the gist of the Charlotte Observer piece, however.

I'll be interested to see if this gets any D/FW press coverage given the Exxxotica fiasco; without delving too far into a local-politics tangent, Exxxotica is (as one might guess from the name) an adult-entertainment convention that was recently and unexpectedly blocked from using the city-owned Dallas Convention Center, with Mayor Rawlings' blessing, and the organization is now suing the city over the matter. The Charlotte Observer piece loudly ponders "What-If" the city does the same to the NRA.

However, the city of Dallas is using alleged indecent conduct at the last Exxxotica convention as an excuse to block them, whereas it's much harder to pin the "Illegal!" label on the NRA. Secondly, I surmise that voters and (perhaps more crucially) the local business community would be much more likely to punish Rawlings over blocking the NRA than over blocking Exxotica—particularly since Ft. Worth or one of Dallas' deep-red suburbs would likely covet the opportunity to steal the NRA convention from Dallas, simultaneously winning the restaurant and hotel business while rubbing egg in Rawlings' face. (Rivalry between cities is a long-running North Texas tradition. A former Ft. Worth mayor is famous for his habit of taking sack lunches whenever he visited Dallas so that none of his money would go into Dallas city coffers.)