Sadly I've been a one trick roo over the past month, simply because this event has been propagated in the fandom again and again, because it is a good debate. I always love a good debate, so I put myself on one side, mostly the less popular side, that seems to be my tendency, and if both sides are equally popular I tend to try and find a new side to go on, to try and do something unique. Present a unique perspective.

However, I feel I have to make (at least) one more post as more information came in from someone who has a close friendship with the leadership of Anthrocon, and this information is so important that it causes me to change my position and redact some of my previous criticisms.

"Mr. Ross was asked nicely by the staff not to carry his gun around town while in attendance at AnthroCon and he refused." was said by 2 in response to someone asking about Ross.

When re-reading the letter posted on IK's journal about this I looked for any clue of Kage discussing this with him, and there is this:

"We have tried to impress upon you that Pittsburgh has a
very different culture than the one to which you are accustomed, yet
you still do not seem to understand the level of distress that you
cause when you display a firearm in a downtown business district or in
a metropolitan airport."

So there it is, there is a pretty good possibility that there was some kind of deal offered to Insane Kangaroo to conceal carry while in Pittsburgh while Anthrocon was in progress and he held membership. If this is the case it changes my position to a simply neutral case and not a complete incompetence* by AC. It was simply a case of requesting of a member to compromise, and the member refused to compromise, and thus AC showed no need to compromise. That's how successful relationships work, whether they are between 1 person and another, or between 1 person and a group. Insane Kangaroo was obviously willing to go back to his room and put the gun away in order not to carry it on con grounds, that's a compromise he took to attend. Why he decided that simply hiding the gun away and conceal carrying in town was an unreasonable option is up for him to decide, but he made that decision, it wasn't some surprise as I assumed it was that came out and yelled surprise buttsex. It was an option chosen from a decision given to him from the staff and decisions such as that have consequences.

If he feels that they had no right to put that decision on him in the first place, then he can protest that, but while we're talking about that and since I know you're probably going to read this Insane Kangaroo, I do have to give you some advise, I give it to you publicly because I've given enough to Kage publicly to fill a bus, and I think it's only fair that I at least offer you one. When discussing what you plan to do as a protest you talk about carrying two weapons on your person. While I know you're trying to put attention to your cause, there is a thing called subtlety. Don't use an atom bomb when a grenade will do, if you will. When arguing guns are for defense, sure, fine, a pea-shooter at your hip makes me think self defense. A pea-shooter on your hip and a shotty on the back makes me think stand off, war, or zombie apocalypse. The laws of the people of Pittsburgh are a snap shot of the thoughts of the people at the time in which they were made. I'm not sure of Pittsburgh's history so I don't know how many people simply go about and open carry, or how often the debate for or against it comes up. However, carrying two guns on a fursuit, will certainly bring attention to it, but it may not be the attention you desire. There is a possibility that should the debate for changes in open carry in Pittsburgh come up because of this, you may change that law to open carry being removed. If you decide to still go through with it, the consequences are yours alone, just as they have been before, I'm just letting you know my honest thoughts on that, don't shoot the messenger (ha..ha... see what I did there?).

*Back to AC, I say this shows a lack of complete incompetence, because Kage's inaction and silence in dealing with our own press made it seem as if he was hiding something, even though apparently he had nothing to hide. I can understand giving Vanity Fair the silent treatment, but treating Flayrah like Vanity Fair is not the way to go. You could have told them the truth. "We offered a compromise for the individual to conceal carry in the city while being a member of the con and while the con was in town, through his actions he refused, therefore we decided not to continue our relationship with him." See how hard that was? No instead we decide to allow an empty void to be filled by lies and slander of furs trying to cover your ass, no different then what happened with Bush and Iraq.

"Iraq was responsible for 9/11" - Bush's friend Chaney and a result people thought this was true, "IK was stalking an individual [Crusader Cat] at a convention." -Some furry somewhere, which later spread so far as to even be spouted off as truth by WitchieBunnie, a respectful fur who runs a great TF2 server.

"Iraq has weapons of mass destruction." -The American people after hearing Bush's friend(s) say it. "IK was carrying at the con." -Most furries after some furry covering AC's ass somewhere infer it.

So I guess I can't totally blame Kage for his behavior, we have been taught by our leadership that it's ok to not be open with the people you dictate over, to not trust them, to not let them in. Leaders are supposed to become paranoid about 'them' questioning 'their' decisions. When that paranoia grows so deep that you have your friends make proxie inferences about a situation without contesting their factuality, it's time you took a step back and thought about how you can make sure you're not the cause of misinformation. Because while misinformation can make you look good in the short run, when it comes out that the cake is a lie, it will make you look worse then you ever could have in the first place.

Which is why I make this post now, and not later, because of your lack of putting out information, I filled in the gaps myself, and said my opinion based on what I knew. But as soon as new information came out that shows that those facts are not as I originally saw them, it's best to head that off at the pass and understand that the facts are more important then one's image. If this makes me look bad, in the eyes of Insane Kangaroo, or of those who opposed me by supporting him with the gaps I filled in. That's a risk I'd take, rather then be dishonest with myself or them in order to make myself look infallible.

Though I feel foolish for railing against AC and maybe filling in information that wasn't there. The thing is, I wasn't responsible for the lack of 'unusually good information'. That lays with those that felt they couldn't trust the fandom to trust in their decision process. I trust my friends enough to let them in on the process I use to make decisions and to talk about those decisions even if it may put me at odds with them, I think that is something our leaders should do as well. Whether it be a leader of some small chat room, or the President of the United States.

Now please, can someone go on some talk show somewhere and make the fandom look like a bunch of sex fiends so I have something simple to analyze to death and something else to talk about. Sheesh, I can't believe I have to ask.