Guns-in-bars opponents welcome NRA's wallets

Commentary by Gail Kerr • THE TENNESSEAN • November 28, 2010

Irony, thy name is NRA convention.

 

Two of Nashville's top tourism officials — men who used their powerful voices to fight guns in bars for fear it would damage Music City's image among visitors — are now first in line to welcome a 50,000-member convention of the National Rifle Association.

 

Yes, the NRA is coming in 2015. It will hold its 144th annual convention at the Music City Center, now under construction. The convention will bring Nashville up to $25 million in spending over three days.

And therein lies the interesting rub. Butch Spyridon, president of the Nashville Convention & Visitors Bureau, and restaurateur Randy Rayburn, former chairman of the group that rallied to build the new convention center, are its biggest cheerleaders.

 

Both chuckled at the irony but were quick to say that opposing the expansion of gun rights is not counterintuitive to making deals to get the nation's strongest gun rights supporter to come to town.

"It doesn't change the fact that I think guns and alcohol don't mix," Spyridon said. "Our job is to fill hotel rooms. I'm a decent sales guy. The first time I met the NRA guy, I told him, 'We are the right market for this.' "
Rayburn added: "If I don't get a single diner from the NRA, so what? It will benefit all the rest of Nashville. What raises the tide in the harbor helps all boats."

'The demographics fit'

Rayburn, owner of such Nashville icons as Sunset Grill and Midtown Cafe, filed a lawsuit with nine other people asserting that a new law, sponsored by former state Sen. Doug Jackson, D-Dickson, was unconstitutionally vague.
The law allowed anyone with a legal gun carry permit to bring a gun into restaurants and bars where alcohol is served.
The Nashville and Memphis convention and visitors bureaus opposed the guns-in-bars bill.

"We've had individual visitors canceling their trips," Spyridon said then.
A Davidson County Chancery court ruled the law was indeed unconstitutional because state laws defining bars and restaurants are quite mushy.

"The heart of my worries," Rayburn said at the time, "was we are in the hospitality business."

Jackson came back with a cleaned-up law that passed. Permitted guns are now legal in Tennessee bars. An owner may opt out by posting a sign. Jackson lost his re-election bid, echoing statewide polls that show voters do not want guns in bars.

Has the NRA convention changed Spyridon's and Rayburn's minds? Both men say no. But they welcome NRA wallets.

"The NRA does a lot with country artists," Spyridon said. "The demographics fit."
Rayburn said: "More business for Nashville helps our community grow. It also proves to the bigger groups that our city can handle it."

As for whether they are concerned that NRA members will go honky-tonkin' while packing, Spyridon tossed them a back-handed compliment:
"I think the city will be pretty safe that week," he said.

Gail Kerr's column runs on Sundays, Tuesdays and Thursdays. Find out more about her and contact her through her reporter page.

http://www.tennessean.com/article/20101128/COLUMNIST0101/11280347/1008/OPINION01