NATIONAL HARBOR, Maryland On Thursday afternoon, the head of the National Rifle Association gave a fiery speech to a room filled with the countrys most dedicated conservative activists.
Just one thing: Nobody was packing heat.
Thats because the nations top conservative conference is now an official gun-free zone.
Security here is conspicuously tighter this year than in recent years past. Attendees were greeted by metal detectors, and at one point a lengthy line of conference-goers stretched through the hotel as they waited for security guards to search their bags.
Perhaps the most glaring new addition were signs near metal detectors with a decidedly gun-unfriendly message.
NOTICE METAL DETECTORS IN USE, the signs read. Absolutely No Weapons Allowed.
The Conservative Political Action Conference brings together the rights most devoted footsoldiers, including a host of passionate Second Amendment defenders.
Ian Walters, CPACs communications director, said the extra security was due to the number of presidential candidates coming with Secret Service entourages in tow.
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Conservatives often argue that the only way to stop a bad guy with a gun is a good guy with a gun. But at CPAC, the only good guys with guns were cops. An officer whose name badge read Muldoon and who didnt want to give his first name said the conference policy was simple: no guns.
The policy has pretty much been no firearms, he told The Daily Beast. Some people got up in arms about that.
One such attendee, Robert Owens, sat at the Future Female Leaders booth in the exhibit hall. He said his daughter started the groupand he said he wasnt pleased about the no-gun rule.
I dont like it, he said. I just think that the Second Amendment would allow somebody to carry a firearm wherever they choose to carry a firearm. There shouldnt be a limit to it. Once you start one limit, its a continuous slide about eliminating the right.
Others were less dogmatic. Charlie Kirk, founder of the conservative group Turning Point USA, didnt condemn the decision.
I think its interesting, he said. Thats the word Ill use. Interesting.
When asked if he thought CPAC needed more gun-toting good guys, he said, Thats a well-phrased question. Thats my answer.
Im very pro-Second Amendment, he added. I can understand both sides of the decisionwhy certain gun-carrying should be allowed and why they made the decision they did.
