For news media, a rumor alleging that the National Rifle Association would ban all firearms at its annual convention this week in Tennessee proved too good to check.
There is no such firearm ban on convention attendees, but you wouldn’t know that if you read the New York Times, the New York Daily News or MSNBC.
NRA spokespersons told the Washington Examiner‘s media desk Friday that reporters didn’t contact them to verify the gun ban allegation.
“Anyone who says that is completely wrong,” NRA spokesman Andrew Arulanandam told the Examiner. “Firing pins are removed from the display items found through the convention center and elsewhere. That’s common practice. But attendees can definitely bring their firearms to the convention.”
However, for groups like the Times and the Daily News, the NRA is grossly hypocritical for supposedly prohibiting convention goers from exercising the Second Amendment rights the pro-gun group claims to protect.
“After all the N.R.A. propaganda about how ‘good guys with guns’ are needed to be on guard across American life, from elementary schools to workplaces, the weekend’s gathering of disarmed conventioneers seems the ultimate in hypocrisy,” the Times editorial board wrote Friday, repeating the charge that no one would be allowed to bring a firearm to the convention.
Elsewhere, the Daily News incorrectly reported that the NRA “wants guns at schools, but not its own annual convention.”
NRA spokeswoman Jennifer Baker suggested in a phone call with the Examiner Friday morning that reporters likely relied on misinformation released earlier this week by Shannon Watts of the Michael Bloomberg-funded anti-gun group “Moms Demand Action For Gun Sense in America.”
“No one contacted us,” Baker told the Examiner. “These report are factually incorrect.”
The @NRA is all about #gunsense at their upcoming #Nashville convention http://t.co/eKVhTiYxjN @momsdemand pic.twitter.com/nLu8SOFQuo
— Shannon Watts (@shannonrwatts) April 6, 2015
It’s true attendees are not allowed to bring guns into a specific event that will be held at the Bridgestone Arena in Nashville, Tenn., but that’s by order of the group that owns the concert venue, said Arulanandam.
“We always comply with whatever the local and federal laws are,” Arulanandam said. “That has always been our policy. So for this particular venue, we are abiding by their rules.”
He stressed that convention goers are free to bring their guns anywhere else — so long as they conform to state and federal law.
At around the same time that various news organizations repeated the false gun ban rumor, the Tennessean reported that attendees would be allowed to bring their guns to the convention. Further, the NRA itself states on its website that attendees are welcome to bring their guns so long as they observe local laws.
Facts regarding the NRA’s policy on attendees bringing firearms to the convention are readily available and easily found.
“We’ve done our best to correct the record,” Baker told the Examiner. “Our policy has always been the same. People are welcome to carry their firearms so long as it conforms with local and federal laws. That’s clearly stated on our website and on welcome material. Bridgestone Arena is the only exception.”
“It’s a trade show. It’s not a gun show. No guns for sale. People are welcome to carry their firearms. That’s it,” she said.
The New York Daily News did not respond to the Examiner‘s requests for comment.
Update 3:45 pm ET: The New York Times issued an editorial correction late Friday afternoon.
“An earlier version of this editorial incorrectly described the rules on carrying concealed firearms at the convention. It is prohibited at one of the main convention venues, but not in all of them,” read the Times’ update.
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This post has been updated to include the Times’ correction.
