MarsCon to Share Space With a Gun Show
Minnesota SCI is, as far as I can tell, a gun show. I could be wrong. I've never been to a gun show. (Tried to go once, but there was a scheduling conflict.) Maybe it's more accurately described as a Gun Con... At any rate, this year's MarsCon will share a hotel with this year's Minnesota SCI gathering.
I honestly don't expect any trouble. These guys are going there to fetishize firearms, not to pick fights with nerds. Still, there's chatter on the social media from a couple of congoers who worry about a potential threat, and I guess I can respect that. I mean, the sort of mindset we tend to associate with gun shows (again, I've never actually been to one, so I don't know how accurate the association is, but I'm assuming it's not very,) is the sort of mindset that'd hunt man if they could get away with it.
And much of the crowd at con, (at least the older crowd, who grew up in an era when Revenge of the Nerds was like a documentary,) are always looking over their shoulders for bullies.
Nancy and I had a brief conversation about this yesterday, and she agreed with me that it's probably not going to cause any problems, and that members of the respective cons are unlikely to cross over and harass each other.
"As long as they're not selling guns without a background check," she said. "I've heard they do that at gun shows."
"Oh, no. They're not selling guns to just anyone," I assured her, looking over their website. "They're raffling them."