by David Safier
You can attend a gun show at the Pima County Fairgrounds on the one year anniversary of the shooting at Giffords' Congress on Your Corner event. And you can bring a gun with you — so long as it isn't loaded.
No loaded firearms and no loaded magazines are permitted in any Crossroads gun show. Your personal safety is our number one priority while you are at the show.
[snip]
Q: Can I carry a loaded gun in the gun show? I have a Concealed Carry Permit.
A: We respectfully request that you do not bring any loaded firearm into the gun show. Safety is our Number One Priority, and a safe environment in the show can only be maintained if there are no loaded guns in the show.
I have a few questions:
- If loaded guns are OK on the street, in places of business including bars and, if the Republicans in the Arizona lege get their way, on college campuses . . . if, as the NRA says, we need loaded guns everywhere to keep us safe . . . then why should a gun show be worried about loaded guns on the premises?
- Is Crossroads "requesting" people not bring loaded guns with them, as it says in one place, or are loaded guns not "permitted," as it says in another?
- Is the NRA planning to boycott and picket the gun show on Second Amendment grounds?
- If some scofflaw comes in with a loaded gun and starts shooting, how will all the law abiding citizens be able to take down the shooter, as the NRA says would happen if people were allowed to carry guns everywhere, if their guns are empty?
Color me confused.