Of course this is a fake headline, but with all of the hysteria around the Coronavirus, would you have been surprised?
While the cancellation of the 149th NRA Annual Meetings was not a surprise—Nashville had been recently hit by a devastating tornado and concerns about the spread of the coronavirus led to an emergency declaration in Tennessee—it comes as a disappointment, considering this is an election year and NRA members use the meetings to energize.
The NRA issued the following notice on its website:
Important Update: NRA Annual Meeting Cancellation
With our 149th Annual Meeting scheduled for next month in Nashville, we realize many NRA members and meeting guests have questions about the coronavirus (COVID-19) and the potential impact on our convention.
We have been closely monitoring updates from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and Tennessee Department of Health. In fact, earlier today, a state of emergency was declared in Tennessee.
Therefore, we have reluctantly decided to cancel this year’s NRA Annual Meeting, planned for April 16 – 19 in Nashville.
This applies to all events and scheduled programs, including the NRA-ILA Forum. We sincerely regret the need for this action, particularly for our many loyal members who join us for this annual celebration of the NRA and our constitutional freedoms. Details regarding a rescheduled NRA Members’ Meeting will be forthcoming.
Under the direction of NRA President Carolyn Meadows, the NRA Board of Directors is working with the Office of the Secretary in relation to board elections, meetings, and the like.
Please know that we did not reach this decision lightly. We were ultimately guided by our responsibility to help ensure the safety and well-being of our NRA members, guests, and surrounding community.
Please coordinate directly with any hotels, airlines or others who have assisted with your travel arrangements. Most companies have announced plans to accommodate travelers dealing with event cancellations.
Please visit www.nraam.org for additional news and information regarding NRA activities. Thank you for your understanding and continued support.
The only other time in recent memory that NRA cancelled its annual meeting was in April 1999 in Denver, Colo. just days after the tragedy at Columbine High School in Littleton. While the NRA Board of Directors held its required meeting, the exhibits and other activities were cancelled.
In recent years, the annual NRA conventions have drawn as many as 80,000 members and visitors.
NRA has been under intense pressure for more than a year, with questions raised about its financial health and a series of competing lawsuits between the organization and its longtime public relations firm, Ackerman McQueen.
The controversy erupted last year at the annual meeting in Indianapolis, and then-NRA President Lt. Col. Oliver North stepped down in what has been described as a power struggle with longtime NRA Executive Vice President Wayne LaPierre.
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No Offense Home Boys, but your headline is BS. I am a Independent and I carry and am Stocked up way before this issue that is presented now. No one wants your guns, just common sense registration. Get Real! You and People like You Create this type of Panic. Get a Grip!
Common sense registration just like they did in Nazi Germany and Soviet Russia. They do want your guns. An armed person is a citizen, an unarmed person is a subject/slave.
Yeah really? That’s a first time I have ever heard of that one. Homeboy you are a Slave already, just like the rest of us. If they want you your firearm will not make a difference. They will kick your door in and blow you away. Your Bravado is Ignorance….
I agree the headline on this one got it completely wrong! The NRA made the right choice ! It was NOT forced upon them By the Democrats . A simple family gathering/ Sunday diner of 27 people in New Jersey resulted in the deaths of four family members, with three more in critical condition. There are thousands dead in Italy. The NRA convention would put between 70.000 to 100.000, or more people in close contact with one another and in needless jeopardy. As a first responder (police officer / Army veteran) in an area that is in a hot zone of the nation right now. I for the first time in my career am scared. I’m fighting a microscopic enemy. The enemy is ruthless and doesn’t fight fair. I like firefighters, paramedics, doctors and nurses cannot stay home for the next two weeks or longer. We are on the front lines of this unprecedented national emergency. I have no Choice but to strap on a gun a bullet proof vest and go do my job. I will do it faithfully to help my fellow Americans, we are better than that as a nation and we will get through this together. God Bless you all and the United States of America
That’s how you get goof-balls started. Just like Trump with the fake-news. Some nut job just reads the headlines like this one and it’s off to the races. Then when some shoot out happens with injuries and/or fatalities because of these type of headlines, the originator (like Trump) says “I never thought that would happen, I was only a JOKE”. Things like this gives some individuals strange thoughts.
Come on people, read the first sentence before you go off about the headline!