The Eastern Sports and Outdoor Show, also known as the Harrisburg Gun Show, has announced it will limit the type of firearms that it will allow to be exhibited.
“We have made the decision not to include certain products that in the current climate may attract negative attention,” they posted on their website.
The hunting and fishing show, the largest consumer event in the nation, offers 1,200 exhibitors and will run from Feb. 2–10, 2013, just outside of Harrisburg, Pa.
A representative to the show told the Daily Caller that “no specific information was available on the type of restricted product at this time” and she offered to have someone call back with the information.
The National Rifle Association, in a statement through their Institute for Legislative Action, stated they “strongly disagrees with Reed Exhibitions’ decision to ban Modern Sporting Rifles.”
The statement went on to “urge you to follow the NRA and the outdoor industry’s lead by voicing your displeasure with Reed Exhibitions both before and during the show and encourage them to reconsider their position.”
The NRA is reconsidering their support of the show, “The NRA’s future participation in the Eastern Sports & Outdoor Show will be determined by Reed Exhibitions actions in response to the concerns raised by the NRA, the outdoor industry, and America’s law-abiding gun owners.”
Facebook fans of the show are outraged.
One fan writes, “If you stand for and support the second amendment, then you would not allow your judgment to be clouded by the people who mean to do harm to the very foundation of this country. I and, my family, will not be attending.”
Fans have set up a page calling for a boycott of the show and have gotten support from 1,348 people since Tuesday.
While the show will not specifically tell the public what products are banned, the website Lancaster Online is reporting that AR style rifles and high-capacity magazines are the targeted products.
“Representatives from Kinsey’s Outdoors in Mount Joy and The Sportsman Shop in New Holland, which are both affected by the ban, said they were told by Reed officials they could not bring to the show for sale or display any AR-style rifles or ammunition magazines capable of holding more than 30 rounds,” the site reported.
Reed Exhibitions, the event’s organizer, is based in Norwalk, Conn., approximately twenty-five miles from Newtown where the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting took place.
