So the nuts are falling from the left and from the right, and this strange winter of discontent on the issue of gun control has led to the cancellation of North America's largest consumer-oriented outdoors show: not gun show, mind you, but outdoors show.
The nuts fell from the right last week when England.-based Reed Exhibitions "postponed" the annual Eastern Sports and Outdoors Show in Harrisburg that was scheduled for Saturday through Feb. 10. The annual show features all kinds of hunting, fishing, boating, camping, hiking, orienteering, birding, nature and outdoors paraphernalia — plus guns.
The nuts fell from the left for Reed Exhibitions, which has its main U.S. offices in Connecticut, less than an hour's drive from the recent Newtown massacre. Reed had added a Tactical Hall for the Harrisburg show to feature what are called modern sporting arms like the AR-15 semi-automatic military style weapons that have become popular among gun enthusiasts and collectors. Reed skittishly announced it was banning the modern sporting arms, as well as high capacity ammunition magazines, from the show.
The National Rifle Association condemned the decision by Reed as an affront to the Second Amendment rights of Americans to keep and bear arms. Hunting celebrities, major sponsors like Cabela's, and other industry professionals to the tune of a little more than 300 of the 1,200 exhibitors withdrew from the show, and Reed postponed the show while telling exhibitors their space-rental money would be returned, making it appear as an outright cancellation rather than a postponement.
The Hershey Harrisburg Regional Visitors Bureau estimated that its local economy lost $44 million in direct spending from hotel rooms and meals, and approximately $80 million from the show when indirect spending is taken into account.
Beyond that, there was a direct effect on exhibitors who have nothing to do with the display or sale of guns, and the outfitters — individuals and companies that provide guided hunts and fishing trips. Some outfitters book 90 percent of their trips during the Harrisburg show.
This was a showdown of First Amendment rights against Second Amendment rights, where the Second Amendment rights people expressed their First Amendment rights by speaking out against someone asserting their First Amendment rights. In any case, the outdoors community needs to stand united, but this incident may be the wedge that drives it apart even more than the inclusion of crossbows in Pennsylvania hunting seasons or the controversy over whether or not to allow Sunday hunting.
John Annoni of Allentown, founder of Camp Compass and Two Million Bullets — outdoors outreach and awareness programs geared for inner-city youth — feared that the modern sporting arms platform guns would become the wedge the gun control advocates were seeking to pry open the door to the supposed sanctity of the Second Amendment. Instead, it appears to be the wedge dividing the outdoors community. Hurt someone's pocketbook and opinions can change quickly.
There has been considerable controversy over whether the Sandy Hook shooter used an AR-15 or not. Some on the right have pointed to an NBC newscast that initially reported erroneous information that an AR-15 was not used.
That report has been since corrected, but what difference does it make if the shooter used an AR-15 or pistols? He still used guns. People who keep perpetrating this urban myth that an AR-15 was not used are doing Second Amendment rights advocates no good. It's almost like rejoicing in the fact that the cigarette didn't cause the lung cancer, the cigar did.
I am a firm believer in, and supporter of, our Second Amendment Rights to keep and bear arms. When people argue that the Founding Fathers could not foresee the rise of such things as automatic weapons, I laugh and say, no, they had cannons back then, and they didn't say we had a right to keep and bear arms except for cannons. They wanted our citizenry well-armed as a military force in order to prevent what happened in Nazi Germany, or even at Kent State.
What I don't like is when the NRA, through Executive Vice President Wayne LaPierre, takes a militant stance in the wake of a senseless mass murder. We should place the blame on violent video games, on Quentin Tarantino splatter flicks, on not raising children with respect. But we must say it in a better way, one that doesn't portray a dictatorial stance and alienate other Americans who may not express the same appreciation for guns that we do.
Sure, guns don't kill people; people do. But, deranged people use their hands, rocks, frying pans, knives, forks, guns and anything else they can get their hands on to kill people.
The government is not trying to take your guns from you. The government is seeking to limit gun ownership, seeking tougher registration laws and trying to outlaw certain types of firearms. That's not trying to take away the guns I have. I may have doubts about what the government is really trying to do with the Second Amendment, but any proposed law or executive order will end up in front of the Supreme Court anyway.
Let's drop the rhetoric and the semantics. Modern sporting arms like the AR-15 are semi-automatic weapons. Assault weapons are fully automatic. Those are statements that the NRA should make at every news conference in order to educate the masses. Semi-automatic weapons are not assault weapons. Any weapon can be used for assault, but automatic weapons fall under the label assault weapons. Semi-automatic weapons do not. In this winter of gun control discontent, the NRA should seek to educate the public, not polarize it. The nuts keep falling to the left and to the right, and instead, they should be aiming for the middle of the road to seek more support. If you find yourself preaching only to the choir, you don't have much of a congregation.
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