Frommer told "10 other states have open-carry laws similar or identical to Arizona's"

[archangel689]

Hinting at a national boycott of Arizona, travel guru Arthur Frommer said he won't be making any trips to the Grand Canyon State after a group of protesters openly displayed firearms outside the building where President Barack Obama gave a speech in Phoenix this week.

Arizona law allows most adults to bear arms in public.

Frommer said he was "shocked beyond measure" by the gun-toting "thugs" and "extremists," including a man with an AR-15 semiautomatic rifle who said he was exercising his Second Amendment rights.

"For myself, without yet suggesting that others follow me in an open boycott, I will not personally travel in a state where civilians carry loaded weapons onto the sidewalks and as a means of political protest," the founder of the popular Frommer's collection of budget-travel guides wrote on his blog on Frommers.com.

"I not only believe such practices are a threat to the future of our democracy, but I am firmly convinced that they would also endanger my own personal safety there," Frommer added. "And therefore I will cancel any plans to vacation or otherwise visit in Arizona until I learn more. And I will begin thinking about whether tourists should safeguard themselves by avoiding stays in Arizona."

Frommer is an influential voice in the travel world, having launched his eponymous guidebook company in 1957. Though he sold his business in 1977, he has continued to blog for Frommer's and is a consultant to parent and global-publishing group Wiley.

Obama's visit was supposed to put an international spotlight on the Grand Canyon; the Phoenician resort, where the family stayed; and the new Phoenix Convention Center. The suggestion of a boycott by a national travel figure could be a blow to Arizona's recession-battered tourism industry. Metropolitan Phoenix has posted some of the largest declines in the country in hotel occupancy and other key measures for more than a year now as the recession, a backlash against corporate meetings and a glut of new hotel rooms take their toll on profitability.

In a 20-minute conference call Thursday, Phoenix Mayor Phil Gordon and Steve Moore, head of the Greater Phoenix
Convention and Visitors Bureau, spoke with Frommer, inviting him to visit Phoenix to clear up any misperceptions about the city's safety.

"It's a great place to live, work, raise a family and particularly to visit," Gordon said. "It's unfortunate an individual expressing his beliefs (the man with the rifle) got the coverage he got because that's not what Phoenix is about. Phoenix is one of the safest major cities in the United States."

Gordon pointed out that 10 other states have open-carry laws similar or identical to Arizona's, where most citizens can carry a firearm in public without a permit or license. There are seven states where openly carrying guns is unlawful.

Frommer told the mayor he has many friends in Arizona and would "take his comments to heart," Gordon said.

Moore called Frommer an icon of the travel industry. But he said local leaders need to focus on promoting Phoenix and Arizona as "safe and secure" rather than engage in a debate over gun rights.

"This isn't about one's rights to carry. . . . As a state that depends so much on the convention and visitor industry, (it's critical) we respond as soon as possible with accurate information so perceptions do not prevail."

In his blog, Frommer repeatedly raises the question of a national boycott of the state, something Arizona leaders are all too familiar with.

"The question is, should we all organize a travel boycott of Arizona until this tolerance of armed intimidation is ended, probably by an act of the Arizona legislature?" he asked.

The NFL yanked the 1993 Super Bowl from Arizona and Sun Devil Stadium after voters here narrowly shot down a ballot initiative creating a paid state holiday honoring the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.

Other groups joined in the boycott, refusing to hold their conventions in Phoenix.

Only after Arizona voters overwhelmingly approved the King holiday in 1992 did the NFL award the 1996 Super Bowl to Arizona.

http://www.azcentral.com/business/ar...ommer0821.html

[kunsunoke]

Frommer can pound sand.

[camper]

Isn't Phoenix the kidnapping capital of the US?

Yeah...he should stay there without ANY guns, and make it clear to everyone he's got lots of money, power and influence and NO GUNS anywhere near him.

camper

[autotech6506]

The idiocy continues! How can a gun in a holster be a threat to your safety? Also in every article I've read they had cops essentially shadowing these "thugs" with guns.

what a tard. when are they going to realized that a guy with a gun in a holster is your ally not your enemy. I guarentee if I was at a mall and some gunman started going crazy this idiot would be yelling "you have a gun why don't you use it!!!"

[••SpraynPray••]

That idiot can eat my fumunda cheese, If anyone cares what frogger does they can eat it too.


STAY THE HELL OUT OF MY STATE PUSSY! =D

[Kimba]

<Snip>"I not only believe such practices are a threat to the future of our democracy<Snip>

Huh

How can the practice of ones rights be a threat to democracy?

[Ihatemyglock]

The only people that should have guns are my bodyguards! If the people aren't afraid of their government then democracy as we know it will fail!

[fingers80002]

When the hell did we turn into a fucking democracy???????

Last time I checked, we were still a Republic.........

[ByAnyMeans]

When the hell did we turn into a fucking democracy???????

Last time I checked, we were still a Republic.........

+1, unfortunately people have no idea the difference or even care what it is. Obviously the guys an idiot when he feels that exercising our most important constitutionaly protected right is a danger to our country. JACKASS, it preserves our freedoms such as the one were people get to express their thoughts no matter how assinine they are.