NRA Cancels 2020 Annual Meeting in Nashville, TN

[TGO David]

Source:  https://www.nraam.org/

 

My Thoughts... As-if You Care...

This should really come as no surprise to anyone given the number of other major events that are being suspended or outright canceled to quell the spread of the COVID-19 virus here in the United States, let alone the fact that Governor Lee has declared a state emergency for Tennessee, or that President Trump has declared a national state of emergency for the entire country.  However, and as no surprise, there are still people who are imagining this into a tactic by Wayne LaPierre's minions to skip the annual voting and keep him in power.

So let's think rationally about this for a moment if we dare.

 

As most folks know,  I think the NRA's leadership needs to be erased from stem to stern and replaced with new blood who put the Second Amendment and the true right of the people to keep and bear arms above all else.  I am not a WLP fan, and I believe that the NRA is in a terribly weakened condition right now because of his shoddy leadership and just general fiduciary malfeasance on the part of the Board of Directors.

That being said, a person has to surrender a lot of logical thinking to come to the conclusion that cancelling the 2020 NRA Annual Meetings in Nashville is some sort of scam, or to even think that the NRA could pull off postponing the event for a later date in the year.

 

IF you have never organized a large event or sat on the board of directors of an organization that has, it might not occur to you that the NRA had paid a large sum of money to rent the Nashville Music City Center for the venue and that it was in turn charging its exhibitors large sums of money to come in and set up their booths.

It might not also readily occur to you that exhibitors had by now established shipping, travel, lodging, and other logistical contracts in order to get their booths, wares, and people on site for the event.

And it might not occur to nearby Tennesseans who could just drive an hour and be at the venue, that thousands of NRA members had also established contracts with airlines, hotels, arranged for days off from work, etc. to be there as well.

But, last and certainly not least, you might have overlooked that the NRA announced this cancellation on March 12th, which is a hair more than 30-days ahead of the scheduled April 16th start date for the event.  And that 30-days is generally the cut-off for cancelling any of those contracts that I mentioned above without substantial penalties.

 

SO... maybe, just maybe, there were people at the NRA using their heads who came to the conclusion that it would be better to cancel this event now, than arrive at April 16th only to find that COVID-19 wasn't fully licked and that exhibitors and attendees were opting to stay home, or that some government entity has put the populace under quarantine and made that decision for them.

I figure the only way NRA members would be even more pissed about the whole thing is if the NRA had pushed forward and then lost the ability to get a refund on all of the money... OUR money... it had spent to rent an empty building for an event no one could attend.

But hey, maybe that's just me being practical and not assuming that Wayne LaPierre is hiding under every bed, waiting to steal our checkbooks and credit cards when we sleep.

 

 

Oh, and as for that idea of rescheduling the event later this year?  These things take months of advance planning and by the time March 12th rolls around on any given year, most venues large enough to handle a crowd like this have already booked themselves out for the remainder of the year.  And of course the exhibitors have likely already set their plans for the remainder of the year as well.

So, yeah... good luck with making a rescheduling happen.

 

Maybe I'll see some of y'all in Texas for the 2021 meetings.  Until then, don't forget to vote in the NRA elections.  They won't cancel those this year.  They'll just let you do it remotely.  Kind of like they always have.

 

 

[MacGyver]

It’s absolutely the right decision.

I hate it for the city of Nashville that’ll probably lose out on ~$30M? in related revenue. This is a giant convention - but certainly not the only one canceling.

There are a lot of small businesses that are really going to hurt.

If you’ve got a restaurant or small business you frequent - this might be a great time to purchase a gift card or two to use when this is over. 

[RED333]

I work in the service and repair of walk in coolers, freezers, fryers, ovens, dishwashers, and ice machines in restaurants. I had a call last night, I asked about how busy they where. A normal friday night is a 5000 dollar night, last night was less than 2000 dollars. The "event" is hitting the economy now.

[KahrMan]

Except grocery stores. My daughter works for Publix. The busiest days of the year are before Thanksgiving and Christmas. They usually do around 150k per day at her store on those days. 
Thursday, day before yesterday, they did 183k. 
it is crazy right now. 

[gregintenn]

You guys are so practical.....where's the fun in that?

[DWARREN123]

They basically had to cancel after the governor declared a state of emergency over the COVID-19 outbreak.

I do not blame them but I was so looking forward to it.

[btq96r]

I think the NRA made a logical decision in the face of events unfolding, and threats on the horizon with regards to COVID-19.

I also think WLP didn't need much prompting to extend his time in hiding, and could use this unplanned dwell time to circle some wagons and pull any number of shenanigans if the crisis affords him an opportunity.  The may is a bureaucratic knife fighter if nothing else.

The true losers are the businesses and workers of Nashville who will be struggling from not servicing this event and any others canceled.  Times are going to get tough for those who own small businesses, and hourly workers that are the backbone of an urban workforce.  Also. NRA members who will have to put up with WLP for a least a little while longer are losers in this too, but they've been stuck with him for quite a while, so a few more months won't be too impactful.

[DaveTN]

My son and his family want to come down the 26th for a few days and take the kids to see stuff in Nashville. I’m not sure what they want to see, but I doubt much will be open??
 

[Chucktshoes]

9 minutes ago, DaveTN said:

My son and his family want to come down the 26th for a few days and take the kids to see stuff in Nashville. I’m not sure what they want to see, but I doubt much will be open??
 

Unless we go on some sort of full lockdown, I would actually expect most stuff to be open and thankful for the business.