Censorship

While at the NRA Annual Meeting on Saturday I wore this shirt:



It got a lot of compliments while on the exhibit floor but something happened that night while at the blogger dinner. I’ve been told that I might have to burn that shirt. I would have never worn that shirt to work and figured as long as I stayed away for places like that I would be okay. But censors are sometimes where you least expect them. Yes, the heavy hand of censorship is threatening me because of that shirt.


On the night in question there were about 20 or 30 bloggers at this bar having dinner, drinking a few, and trying to talk to each other (it was very loud). Alan Gura had expressed, rather forcefully, that it was too loud and wanted to go someplace else so we could talk easier. I was up moving around and trying to shepherd people in the general direction of the door and to a nearby outdoor plaza with a quiet fountain and seating. From a nearby table filled with college students two young women approached me and said they really liked my shirt and they wanted a picture of one of them with me and the shirt. I obliged them.


I later told Say Uncle about it and he quipped, “I’ll bet you never thought you could use that shirt to pick up chicks, did you?” I laughed and said, “No.” That would have been the end of it had I not opened my big mouth later. Later that evening as I was talking to wife Barbara and she asked how my day had gone I told her of the event and Say Uncle’s joke. In the silence that followed I blissfully babbled on and told her of another funny thing that happened. This probably sealed the fate of that shirt.


As everyone was saying goodnight someone said how wonderful it was to meet and hang out with the celebrities like Michael Bane, Alan Gottlieb, and god of gods Alan Gura. I agreed and added something like, and pointing at Mike W, “But you said I was a celebrity.” Mike protested, “But you are a celebrity. You are the Boomershoot guy!” Dixie was standing just to the right of me and said, “You are the Boomershoot guy?” and stretched her arms out with fingers straight, palms flat, and bowed to me.


Barb hasn’t actually said it in words but I’m pretty good at reading the silence.


I think I’m going to have to burn the shirt.

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9 thoughts on “Censorship

  1. With all the great stories about the Convention I have read this year, I verbally committed to attending next years convention, only to find tonite that it is the same weekend as Boomershoot next year!

    Is that right?

  2. Bill,

    This is correct.

    I didn’t have much choice. I had to schedule it when Barb was not working. She works every other weekend. If I scheduled it two weeks later on May 15 it is officially in fire season. I have an agreement with the local fire marshal that we will not hold the event during fire season. If I held it two weeks earlier, starting on April 14th there can be snow on the ground and/or be very muddy.

    I feel bad about the conflict too.

  3. Heh. Sounds like that shirt was about as popular as the one I wore on Sunday – the one you got a picture of…

  4. Might I suggest auctioning off said shirt rather than burning? It’s verified as being boomershoot friendly AND it picks up chicks. What more could you want?

  5. Oh well!!! Guess I’ll have to go to SHOT instead!

    Can’t miss Boomershoot, youngest son will be going for the first time in 3 years after being away outside the country, and I promised Gene we would help again.

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