Gun laws are already affecting public events in Atlanta. In April 2022 Mr. Kemp signed a measure passed by the Republican-controlled General Assembly, allowing most Georgians to openly carry a rifle in public spaces without a permit. A few months later, the Midtown Music Festival canceled its annual event after organizers said they were at a loss on how to protect their expected 50,000 visitors. A week later, another event, the 404 Festival, also canceled its gathering over safety concerns.
Then this month, the SweetWater Brewing Company pulled its SweetWater 420 Fest out of Centennial Olympic Park — where the Democratic convention potentially would be — and sharply scaled back the event to hold it on the brewery grounds, a private space, citing the safety of festivalgoers. Security consultants said that the first open carry law might have been passed in 2014, but repeated mass shootings, the end of permit requirements and the surge of gun violence since 2020 have made insurers take notice and raise the costs of covering large public events.
If nothing else, such headlines are allowing Chicago boosters to spotlight their city’s tough gun control laws and Illinois’s newly enacted, far-reaching ban on high-powered guns and high-capacity magazines. Though full adoption of the law is held up in court, its existence is part of an expansive pitch, including a constitutionally enshrined right to unionize and abortion rights protections, that Chicago is more in step with the party’s values.
Union leaders, who had been pressing their case against Atlanta privately, are also speaking up louder, saying that for many state delegations and union officials, staying in unionized hotels and attending events at unionized venues matter. Some union leaders said they had remained quiet when then-President Barack Obama chose Charlotte, N.C., for the 2012 convention. This time, they won’t.
“Joe Biden is the most pro-union president in history, and having it in a pro-union town reinforces that record and sends a message,” said Ross Templeton, political and legislative director of the International Association of Iron Workers.
Jonathan Weisman reported from Chicago and Maya King from xxx.
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