Would you hand your precision rifle over to a Flamingo Las Vegas security guard upon demand or simply leave the motel?
We brought a couple firearms on our road trip to Vegas because we are doing some other traveling before and after and are doing some shooting. The Flamingo in Vegas is where we had our room reservations for Show Show 2017. This is a huge convention with over 70,000 attendees.
The Flamingo is doing construction on their parking areas (adding lighting and changing to high parking fees rather than free) and therefore have fewer parking spaces than rented rooms. We drove around for 90 minutes looking for a place to self park (we didn’t want to take the risk that the valet would forget to lock the car … and the guns could be stolen).
We finally gave up on self parking within 1/2 mile and went the route of a $13/day valet. (We would have canceled the hotel and found another do to their inadequate parking, but that would have cost us $400 due to the cancellation policy) A friendly valet named Mark asked if there were guns in the cases as we were unloading and we said that there were and invited him to come to Wyoming and try shooting with us sometime! He said he had never held a gun, and I offered for him to hold my cased gun so that he could say he had. Even though I was frustrated about parking, I am still a nice and honest guy.
So, we carried our precision rifle in the camo drag bag and the AR in a separate guitar case to our room. Shortly thereafter, I received a call from “security” who asked if the guns were “hot” and I gave him the answer he wanted. He then suggested that I take the guns to “security” to have them logged in, then when we leave the hotel I could check them out. Seriously. Why? Because “the cleaning staff might see the case and be concerned.” Seriously?
I picked my jaw up off the floor, looked out the window, and sure enough, we were not in France or Chicago, we were still in America. I called back down and asked for a manager, who was nice, just like the rest of the Flamingo staff. I asked for clarification so that I could pass on to other Shot Show attendees if the Flamingo policy was indeed anti-gun. He checked with the security manager and sure enough, they would prefer that Shot Show attendees disarm to the security staff. I confirmed that this was a request and not a demand and they said it was indeed a request/suggestion. I respectfully declined.
AT 9:36PM THREE SECURITY GUARDS CAME TO MY ROOM AND SAID IT WAS POLICY THAT THERE COULD NOT BE ANY GUNS ON PREMISES. NO GUNS ON ANY CAESAR PROPERTIES, INCLUDING IN LOCKED VEHICLES IN PARKING GARAGES. LINK TO CAESAR’S ANTI-GUN POLICY
OK, I get that some folks think camo gun cases with guns in them are dangerous; I am not an “open carry” kind of guy. I am generally as low-key as possible. In this case, the hotel’s irresponsible parking situation made carrying a gun case to my room as my safest option. I could have been sneaky and lied, but I stopped doing that when I left law enforcement over 10 years ago. Am I being too sensitive caring that a guy can’t carry a gun into his castle for the night? Would you have handed your guns over to Flamingo hotel security or would you have simply left?
It would seem to me that a better option would have been to let the hotel staff know that a “bunch of gun folks” would be in town for the next week, and not to touch anything they though looked scary or dangerous. Done. Right? Nope, because their parent company Caesars is opposed to the Second Amendment and personal protection. They choose not to allow any of their patrons to have firearms, which the staff called “weapons” on their premises.
Why should I care, right? The Flamingo has horrible reviews on social media and is on the way out-of-business, supported only by other properties in their conglomerate, right? I must say, I absolutely respect any business owner’s right to make rules of their choice on their property. They can choose to exclude gay people, they may hate the natural right of folks to keep and bear arms and they are allowed to have many hidden fees. I am allowed to write this article, “Flamingo Las Vegas Anti-Gun.”
*By the way, almost all hotels on the Vegas strip are switching to PAID Parking this year (2017). This is evidently being done to discourage tourism.
Steve Wynn’s hotels also have a “NO GUNS” policy, they actually eject customers who practice their right to carry tools of personal protection.
