The National Rifle Association wants guns at schools, but not its own annual convention.
The NRA doesn’t allow the display of working guns at its annual convention this year in Nashville, according to a report in The Tennessean. Instead the group will require the thousands of firearms shown at the event to be nonoperational, with their firing pins removed to ensure safety.
Conventiongoers can still pack their own heat, though.
Attendees can bring their own firearms as long as they are compliant with local ordinances, NRA spokeswoman Jennifer Baker said Wednesday.
Baker said displaying disabled guns is standard practice at the event, which she emphasized is a trade show for gun makers.
The group will use the event, with an expected attendance of 70,000, to boast of its opposition to gun regulation of all kinds, including background checks, as well as to host GOP presidential hopefuls who agree with their stance.
But when it comes to its own security, the virulently pro-gun group is pro-background check.
Attendees who want to buy a gun won’t be able to get one there. They will have to pick it up from a Federal Firearms License dealer near where they live, and present legal identification.
“Our annual meeting isn’t a gun show,” Baker said. “We don’t sell firearms.”
Under federal law, gun purchases and transfers from such deals require a background check.
The NRA in 2013 led opposition to a proposed law that would have expanded that law to close a loophole that lets gun shows and Internet sellers avoid imposing background checks to ensure buyers don’t have criminal records, mental illness or other issues that should bar purchasing a gun.
The NRA has also opposed background check laws at the state and local level.
NRA boss Wayne LaPierre has called repeatedly for allowing guns in schools, and other facilities. LaPierre says arming teachers and guards will help prevent gun violence. At least, outside the NRA’s own events.
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