Needless to say, I have not been keeping up with blogs while we were away in Houston, so it’ll take some time to go through the RSS reader, get my live social media feeds up, and plug back in to what the hell is going on in the world. Normal blogging will resume shortly.
Month: May 2013
Back Home & Further Thoughts on Houston
I have arrived back home from Houston. The flight was a little bumpy, but otherwise uneventful. Flying these days always seems to involve waiting, but we actually breezed through security at Intercontinental with no problem, after checking the sidearm. We had time to kill, so we stopped for some lunch at a Chili’s, amusing ourselves that they had posted a 51% sign out front, even though it was in the secure area of the airport. This Chili’s also only gave out plastic utensils, but would sell you a bottle of beer in the bottle. I guess none of the TSA bureaucrats have ever gone on a pub crawl in Glasgow after a soccer match lets out.
Houston was a great convention city. Given that I’ve done seven of these at this point, I feel I can critique. Saint Louis has been the only repeat city, and I’d only classify it as OK, but both times it’s broken records, including the one that just fell. I thought Phoenix was the best overall convention city until Houston, attendance numbers aside. Pittsburgh was the worst, with Louisville a good runner up for worst. The problem with Pittsburgh is the city can’t handle day trippers, which is most of attendance. The location has great potential, but they just can’t physically bring in people at a fast enough rate to set major records. Pittsburgh’s downtown area also epitomizes the word “rust belt,” and the hotels are spread out too much. Louisville can handle day trippers in spades, but the convention center is not where the hotel space is, and the split convention was kind of ridiculous. It was better for the day trippers, but sucked for anyone who wasn’t. Charlotte was a nice city, and a record breaker too, but too damned expensive. North Carolina carry laws at the time were obnoxious as well.
But overall, it’s always a great event. As I’ve said in the past, many of the people in this issue I have great respect and admiration for are approachable, down to earth, and fascinating people to speak with. We haven’t really formally organized anything for the past few years, but thing still happen on their own. Bob Cottrol came down to the press room for a while, and talked to a number of bloggers, for instance. And it’s not just Prof. Cottrol. How many anti-gun celebs, like Bloomberg, would offer to buy beers and share their cake? Yeah, right. But Michael Bane will (they surprised him with a birthday cake at the Michael Buys the Beer event). Those who came to that event also had an opportunity to meet Dave Kopel. Both Michael and Dave are now behind enemy lines in Occupied Colorado, though I think they both intend to do a great deal more than sit in the chair against the wall.
I can’t tell you that if you’re a rising star in social media, and attended NRA Annual meeting, you’ll be sipping drinks with Wayne LaPierre by the pool before you know it, but there are certainly interesting people to meet and speak with, and NRA has, for several years now, been willing to grant credentials to non-traditional media outlets. From there you can make your own opportunities. The Annual Meeting & Exhibits are in Indianapolis next year. If you do social or new media in the gun rights or gun arena, and are interested, e-mail me.
Celebrity Board Members
It’s no surprise the top vote getters this year were celebrity board members. The surprising thing to me is that Ollie North took the top spot and not Ted Nugent. I’m not reflexively opposed to celebrity Board Members, provided they are bringing something to the table, but I am of the opinion that the NRA Board has too many celebrities who aren’t brining anything, and who actively push contributing members off the Board. Often times losing Board members have skills the association needs. Joel Friedman comes to mind as a Board member who has been struggling to win another three year term.
This is not to say that none of the celebrities contribute. Susan Howard, of 1980s TV “Dallas” fame shows up and chairs a committee. R. Lee Ermey has been to every Board meeting I’ve attended, and has long been a competitor in NRA programs. Ollie North also shows up and participates on the Board. But how many people even know Karl Malone is associated with NRA? I’m not sure he’s even been sworn in.
These are some things to consider when it comes to well known names on your ballot. We’ll never endorse celebrities, mostly because they generally don’t need any help, but we’re happy to have the well known on the NRA Board of they participate.
Another Illegal Mayor City
We have not had an arrest of the individual mayor, but I would classify this news as being under the responsibility of Mayor Linda Thompson, a MAIG mayor.
The Securities and Exchange Commission today charged the City of Harrisburg, Pa., with securities fraud for its misleading public statements when its financial condition was deteriorating and financial information available to municipal bond investors was either incomplete or outdated.
An SEC investigation found that the misleading statements were made in the city’s budget report, annual and mid-year financial statements, and a State of the City address. This marks the first time that the SEC has charged a municipality for misleading statements made outside of its securities disclosure documents.
NRA Annual Meeting Stats
Here are the stats for NRA Annual meeting 2013 in Houston:
- New memberships and upgrades: $1,340,107. This is an 86% increase over last year. Wow.
- NRA Store Sales: $672,762, which is a 54% increase over last year.
- Foundation Banquet: $511,761. Largest ever.
- ILA Dinner: $800,000+, New record.
- Women’s Leadership Forum: $1.2 million. Largest ever.
- And total attendance? 86,228. That’s 12,488 more than the previous record of 73,740. Wow.
And this from some fringe, irrelevant organization that only represents the gun manufacturers.
UPDATE: The Civil Rights Defense Fund announced that the NRA National Firearms Law Seminar had a record 221 attendees as well.
No Live Blog
NRA Security has implemented some security theater outside the Board Meeting, so we are unable to bring you the stats for this year live, but we’ll get close. NRA has traditionally not allowed recording devices in meetings, but it was never really enforced. This year you have to check your cell phones at the door. Oddly enough, they aren’t using the obvious measure of checking NRA membership cards. What’s wildly ironic about all this is that the person who has the recording device with an intent to cause embarrassment (which is itself kinda funny, given how dry Board meetings are) isn’t going to obey the “no recording devices allowed” sign, and it’s not like they are checking beyond asking. I’m just a big believer in, if you’re going to do security, do real security,or don’t bother with it. I’d feel sorry for any operative who had to sit through the whole thing anyway, just like I felt bad for the guy ThinkProgress sent to record the legal seminar. I doubt he could follow anything, and he sure as hell didn’t get anything juicy. But nonetheless I’m still flummoxed over the irony of a cell phone free zone. Or maybe I should call it a lefty-operative empowerment zone.
More to come when we have it.
NRA Board Meeting: Did We Set a Record?
Stay tuned for our live coverage of the NRA Board Meeting, where we’ll find out what the attendance figures were for this year’s Annual Meeting and Exhibits. We already know part of the answer, since Secretary Land already spilled some of the beans in the President’s reception last night. As of then, his office was still counting.
Houston is a record meeting. This is unexpected, because Houston, in previous years, has generally been an average attendance event rather than a record buster. NRA doesn’t seem to schedule record busting cities for off-election-year events, so not only breaking the record this year, but we think possibly obliterating the record this year, is very welcome news, in terms of the political statement it sends.
Shortly we will head over to breakfast. Scott Bach arrived in last night, and invited us. He’s missed pretty much all of the meeting, courtesy to the folks in Trenton, and he’s flying back immediately after the meeting. We’re headed back later this afternoon, and will be out of pocket for a while. It’s been a good meeting for us, despite the fact that we forgot to book hotel space, and had to spend more than I wanted staying at the Four Seasons (though, their convention rate was a steal). I’ve also been shameless about attending catered events this meeting, and the press room cheese platter has made for adequate lunch. Unfortunately, most of my convention budget got washed away by a misplaced drywall screw.
Look for live coverage to begin. We’re only going to cover the morning business, and really not much of that beyond the stats. Really, NRA Board meetings are pretty dry, especially when they get into the afternoon business, which is nearly entirely about programs (e.g. shooting competitions, etc).
The NRA Meeting Protest
Congratulations, Houston. You managed to turn out more protesters than any city since 2004, save Pittsburgh. Unfortunately for your political agenda, that turnout was still under 40 people.
We overheard many conflicting messages. For example, there’s the man who says that it’s okay to own a two-round firearm for hunting only. Turn to the right, and you find this sign at the rally:
After that conflicting message, one of the protesters pondered why we can’t manage to find a middle ground. Gee, I wonder why. (Said protester also wanted to know why we couldn’t have a conversation, then he accused me of being a Westboro Baptist Church supporter for being pro-gun. This is why there is no conversation.)
These folks said they they didn’t want to take our guns, just promote more regulation. Well, call me paranoid, but when your messaging is that my next firearm purchase (even with a background check) is somehow to blame for death, I don’t have much faith that you’re being honest about being willing to stop at background checks.
Last night, an anti-gun group on Twitter was proclaiming a “WORLD RECORD” protest because someone stuck around for a couple of hours and read lots of names of crime victims. Somehow, I don’t think it set any real record, nor do I think Guiness will be calling them anytime soon.
For the people who claim they all in favor of outright democracy and rule of the majority, there was a common theme that they could not understand the concept that they were simply outvoted. It’s not possible for them to wrap their heads around the notion that not everyone agrees with their world view, so it must be all due to money.
And, finally, this woman says that her precious snowflake is more important than any of your civil rights.
Looking for Show Floor Photos?
Check out our Pinterest account in the “Social Media” section of the side bar. More pictures will be forthcoming of yesterday’s protest. If you’re looking for guns and gear, there is probably better coverage out there to be found. These days I never get to spend much time on the show floor, and to be honest, the show floor has been so crowded I can only be down there for so long. I’m not really agoraphobic, but it was tight enough at one point yesterday it was causing me enough anxiety to leave the floor. I told Bitter “At the rate this herd is moving, we won’t hit the other side of the show floor until next Tuesday.”
NRA Board Elections – A Few Facts & Figures
There were 1,718,786 people eligible to vote in the NRA board elections this year. That number is overwhelmingly made up of life members. What’s significant about this number is that it’s nearly 122,000 more than last year. That’s how many more (mostly life) voting members we have now.
Of those ballots mailed, only 123,646 bothered to vote at all. A little under 11,000 had to be tossed because they were invalid. The overwhelmingly common problem (nearly 3,400) is people voting for too many candidates.
More than 10,000 people more voted than last year. The top vote getter (Ollie North) received more votes than the top vote getter last year. There are plenty of years when there are no candidates who break 100,000 votes, but three did this year. Even more amazing, one of them was Sandy Froman even though she’s not a celebrity. (She’s just awesome and wonderfully likeable.)
When we get home, I’ll do up a serious analysis of how people participate in their NRA. This is just a quick and dirty set of facts picked up quickly from the election committee report.