PSA: NRA Annual Meeting

Got this in e-mail yesterday and figured I'd spread the word:

NRA's Annual Meetings & Exhibits 2013

Houston, Texas Hosts Several Acres of Guns, Gear & Outfitters

FOR MEDIA PLANNING PURPOSES

Fairfax, Va. – The National Rifle Association (NRA) is pleased to announce this year's Annual Meetings and Exhibits to be held at the George R. Brown Convention Center in Houston, Texas from May 3-5, 2013.

For more information, including event tickets, please visit www.nraam.org.

Members of the news media who wish to cover this year’s event will need press credentials. For press credentials, please email your name, media affiliation, phone number, and email address to media@nrahq.org. Credentials will be available for pick-up in the press office, room 330 on the third floor, starting at 9:30 a.m. on Thursday, May 2. Television crews and still photographers should bring necessary equipment and lenses (sports lenses) to cover events from platforms at distances from 150-200 feet from the stage. (Please note: requests from U.S. media outlets will be given priority over foreign media requests. Consequently, foreign media should be prepared to wait to have access to the show floor.)

This will be my fourth NRA Convention in as many years, and the second year I'll be getting on a plane to get to the convention. Sure, the hardware and gear on display is great, but the real reason I keep going is to meet up with other bloggers, readers, lurkers, and other great freedom-minded people. I've had some of the greatest conversations at the convention with total strangers  - I distinctly remember talking with a lovely couple from Mississippi while DaddyBear and I were walking around in St. Louis.

For any bloggers thinking of going, I strongly urge you to attend as press. The NRA is really reaching out to "new media" - they were chatting with that famous insurrectionist Thirdpower in the press office in St. Louis - and are eager to accommodate the gunblogging community. Shoot them an e-mail and get set up as press - you won't regret it, especially when you don't have to stand in the long lines for registration (that's a tip from your kindly uncle Jay...)

So, who am I going to be seeing in Houston?

That is all.