This is the peak of the Anti-NRA protest on Saturday Afternoon during the 2013 NRA Annual Meeting and Convention in Houston, Texas. The mainstream media were reporting 35-40 protestors, but when you looked closely, you could tell that there were several pro-rights people engaging the antis, most likely leading to an overinflation of the count.
As I was taking this picture, a gentleman walked up to us and said, “Where are the protesters? I was looking forward to a good argument!”
Heh.
On Sunday at 10am, there were no protestors to be found.
By the middle of the day on Sunday, less than a handful of protestors decided to show up. They looked pretty lost and dejected, and just paced around in small circles for a few hours.
And for some big picture perspective:
Here I am on Friday afternoon with Larry Houck at the FNH booth. (Many thanks to Larry and the other awesome Team FNH shooters for taking the time to give me an amazing detailed lesson on 3-gun shotgun reloading).
The important thing to note here is that There are more people in the background of this picture than there were anti-gun protestors at the NRA Convention.
Day 2 of the 2010 NRA Annual Meetings & Exhibits in Charlotte proved to be a packed day, just like the first day of the NRA convention. Staying in the center of town made for a short walk to Charlotte Convention Center and the few panhandlers I saw didn’t pester me. I should note that Charlotte’s panhandlers did have the newest and cleanest clothes I’ve seen on beggars anywhere, the Charlotte Observer should be proud.
Honored American Veterans Afield, also known as HAVA, has a booth in the main lobby area. We’ve written about the great work HAVA does, backed by the outdoor industry, to help injured and disabled soldiers transition back to civilian life. I participated in their fund raising raffle and happily departed with a few HAVA branded Smith & Wesson lockback knives. We hope you’ll support their efforts too. Despite the large attendance at the show, I was able to get a photo of the HAVA booth in main lobby area.
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Honored American Veterans Afield
Even though the lobby was fairly easy to navigate, the show floor was very active and crowded around the popular booths.
NRA Meeting & Exhibits floor on Saturday.
Lauer Weaponry, maker of Duracote gun paints, had a display of custom painted firearms. I looked at the graffiti laden Manhattan paint scheme momentarily before this brightly painted AR-15 with a rail mounted .45 caught my eye, then apparently blinded me.
Lauer Weaponry displayed their Bloomberg edition gun paints, along with a Manhattan themed rifle, complete with graffiti.
The NRA Annual Meetings & Exhibits for 2010 was held in Charlotte, NC last weekend (5/14-5/16/2010). I took the trip out from 2nd Amendment friendly Arizona for this year’s NRA convention to see the festivities, attend the 2A Blog Bash, and experience the educational seminars.
The Charlotte Observer greeted attendees with an extremely offensive piece, begging attendees not to shoot the place up, calling NRA members “a highly partisan lobbying group” for extreme right-wing Republicans. Fortunately, the Observer is extremely out of touch with the good people of Charlotte who warmly welcomed me to their city, asked me about the annual meeting, life in Phoenix, and generously offered me help at every turn. Welcome signs for NRA members were posted throughout the city.
(Click the thumbnails for larger photos*)
Official Welcome Sign, a pin version was worn by hotel staff too.
Organic welcome sign at Matt’s Chicago Dog
NRA welcome sign at Ratcliffe on the Green in Charlotte, NC. Check out Zach Goodyear’s tasty game meat menu for the NRA Annual Meeting.
The NRA learned from last year’s Annual Meeting in Phoenix, implementing those lessons by opening event registration the day before the show, increasing the efficiency and quantity of registration lines to smoothly handle the significantly higher attendance of over 72,000 people.
Short registration lines were a great improvement over 2009.
The number is in, and it’s big. While not an all-time record for an NRA Annual Meeting, the total attendance for the Phoenix NRA Meeting was 64,324.
Phoenix may have fallen just short of the annual NRA Meeting attendance record which was set last year, but there was no shortage of records set this past weekend. The following records have already been recorded for the 2009 NRA Annual Meeting and Exhibits:
The biggest convention in Phoenix EVER
The largest dinner ever held in the state of Arizona – Over 6,000 paid attendees for the Banquet held on Saturday featuring speakers Oliver North and John Stossel (both were incredible).
The largest attendance for the NRA-ILA Grassroots Workshop – 375 attendees.
We’re sure this list will continue to grow as the numbers come in. Tune in later, as we’ll be posting some more records and interesting statistics that we are working on confirming now.
UPDATE: We’ve found the video of Lieutenant Colonel Oliver North’s speech at NRA Annual Meeting in Phoenix, AZ on Armed Forces Day, May 16, 2009. Please enjoy Lieutenant Colonel Oliver North’s tribute to our troops.
