I did a story a few weeks ago about the fact that private citizens were outlawed from carrying guns into Sarah Palin speaking events. I decided to keep on the same topic and investigated the rules around firearms at the recent Conservative Political Action Convention held at the Marriott Wardman Park Hotel in Washington D.C.
I wondered what the response would be from the people who run security at CPAC if attendees wanted to bring their firearms to the event, either with a legal concealed carried gun or a open carried gun.
I called the the person in charge of CPAC at the Marriott Wardman Park Hotel who referred me to the person in charge of security. Instead of hearing from him, the next day I got a phone call from the District of Columbia police: Homeland Security Bureau, Special Operations Division, Special Events Branch. The nice officer from MPDC-HSB-SOD-SEB wanted me to know that attendees should not bring their guns to CPAC.
He explained that the only people who could legally have firearms at CPAC were active law enforcement and military in performance of their duties or retired officers who met the standards of HR218, the Law Enforcement Officers Safety Act. Even then, if the hotel wanted to, they could ask for no firearms to be allowed on the property (as the Marriott did when they had a hotel hosting NRA members near the last NRA convention in North Carolina.)