Safety first
Gun owners attend inaugural NRA Carry Guard Expo in Milwaukee
Debbie and Bob Burrow of Brookfield were at the Wisconsin Center bright and early Friday for the opening of the inaugural NRA Carry Guard Expo.
She was looking for a more comfortable way to carry her Sig Sauer P238 .380 pistol.
He was price-shopping for insurance and training.
“This is the first in the area. It’s new and different,” said Debbie Burrow, who purchased a leather tote bag designed to carry a firearm and versatile enough to wear over her shoulder or around her waist.
The show that runs through Sunday was jammed with seminars, workshops and plenty of gear.
There were displays of handguns, rifles and shotguns and firearm accessories like holsters, bags and clothing all aimed at a growing market for those interested in concealed-carry weapons and self-defense.
Over at the Dene Adams display, designer Anna Taylor showed off her line of concealed-carry shapeware, from lace and plain corsets to thigh holsters.
“The firearm is snug to your body,” Taylor said, using a mock pistol to demonstrate how the corset could be used with a tennis outfit.
At Ultimate Training Munitions, potential customers used weapons with specialized cartridges that fired a paint marker projectile at 370 feet per second. Light orange paint splattered on metallic targets.
Tony Lambraia, UTM vice president, said the expo will prove successful. “It will grow in popularity,” he said. Not everyone was delighted to see the NRA in Milwaukee.
“The NRA has been ratcheting up their rhetoric lately,” said Anneliese Dickman of the Wisconsin Anti-Violence Effort, which was leading a local protest.
“We’re protesting that they have a vision of America that encourages people to treat their fellow Americans as enemies and that they’re arming those people,” she said.
Josh Powell of the NRA said concealed carry permit holders “are about the most law-abiding citizens in the United States.”
The event highlighted Carry Guard, the NRA’s insurance and training product.
“It’s a one-stop shop of a self-protection insurance program, advanced training, beginning training for those who want to protect themselves with a firearm,” said Powell, the NRA’s chief of staff and executive director of general operations.
Asked if the NRA would push to mandate insurance for concealedcarry permit holders, Powell said: “We absolutely are not interested whatsoever in having any mandates around this at all. Period.”
Powell said holding the first Carry Guard Expo in Milwaukee will allow the organization “to test out smaller venues and be able to expose other places to the NRA.”
While the NRA annual meeting was held in Milwaukee in 2006, the gathering is now so big that it’s gotten harder to bring it to mid-sized cities and convention facilities.
“We have exploded. We can’t fit everything here anymore,” Powell said.
Joan and Paul Robinson of Southampton, N.Y., are new gun owners who began shooting in May. A retired parole officer, Joan Robinson never carried a weapon on the job. But after a home invasion last year, the couple’s sense of safety was shaken.
“We were a little concerned about home safety,” Paul Robinson said. “We’re taking some courses to be more proficient and responsible.”