What did the Gun Show Coordinator do wrong? (in honor of school starting up again today here is a back to school basics of how NOT to run the show)
1. Allowed Vendors and their employees to enter leave through the loading dock area without having to come through the main entrance where they would have been "fully informed" of the rules and regulations and able to have their firearms properly inspected and marked (zip tied). All merchandise and product should have been loaded into the hall a minimum of 2 hours before the show start time. Two hours prior to the start of the show the hall would be emptied of all personnel except for security personnel, and once the space was verified free of people, allow the vendors to come in through the main entrance, subject to ALL attendee inspections to ensure that all firearms are unloaded. Instead, they give/gave a lot of freedom to the vendors of freedom, allowing them uncontrolled access through the loading areas and TRUSTED them to follow the rules.
2. Establish harsh penalties for those who violate their trusted status as vendors either by not following applicable rules, laws and procedures (i.e. deciding the rules shouldn't apply to them). Those penalties should be IMMEDIATE expulsion from the show and their vendor fee forfeited. Immediate means all employees and personnel associated with that vendor are immediately escorted from the building. Security personnel will do their best to secure the vendors products until after the show closes at which time the vendor can come in and retrieve his merchandise.
3. Add a clause to the contract that stipulates that while security personnel will make an effort to safeguard the products of any expelled vendor their primary duty is to circulate and ensure the safety of the event and the Gun Show Coordinator will not be held liable for any merchandise which may end up missing.
The above is a satirical view of the ridiculous lengths a Gun Show Coordinator would have to go to in order to "ensure" the rules are followed for ALL. Folks need to realize the firearms are serious stuff and can kill you. IF you are attending a gun show and you are not following the very specific, posted procedures (but what you consider to be sufficient to met the intent) until it can be proven that you are indeed not carrying a loaded firearm you should expect to be treated like you are carrying a loaded firearm. Put yourself in the position of a LEO/security person. You observe someone who appears to be carrying a loaded firearm. He should not have been able to get on the floor that way but he did. I do not subscribe to drawing your service weapon and ordering the perp/patron/person facedown on the floor but I also don't subscribe to 'asking' the person to bring his weapon out to a ready position so he can show me it is unloaded. To easy to end up dead if it is really an evil person with evil intent (beef with a vendor over a previous deal, desperate to steal weapons/money and run out the back door, someone from an anti-group looking to prove gunshows are dangerous and should be forbidden, on and on).
Yes, I know, it was only a rules violation and not a law violation and the "employee" DID have an unloaded weapon but it was impossible to tell that from any distance and the procedures to indicate an unloaded weapon were NOT followed. A LEO/security office should not have to risk his LIFE by asking for the person to handle his weapon and demonstrate it is unloaded. The Risk analysis formula puts the consequences extremely dire if the weapon is loaded and the persons intent is bad. It is not illegal to walk into a posted financial institution with a firearm but the security personnel are going to go to condition RED if someone does. A finger in a pocket of a sweatshirt can get you arrested, tried and convicted of armed robbery even though no firearm was used in the commission of the crime. Why? What makes these different is the consequences if the thing in the pocket IS a gun. the victim doesn't take a chance and challenge the robber, the potential consequences do not warrant the risk. It appears to be a weapon and it causes the same compliance as a weapon, and gets treated by the justice system as a weapon.
I have gone on too long and wandered too far.....nough said.