This has been noted in the comments already, and I figured I’d open up the conversation here:

Yes, most regional burns ban firearms. They also ban swords, axes, bows, and any other outright weapons. No, nobody has stopped me from carrying around a camp knife on my belt, or using a hatchet or machete to do camp preps. Hell, I keep a 6″ Damascus steel knife on my belt at all times – sure I could use it for defense, but I mostly use it to cut ropes and canvas and such.

Someone here has already said that this makes a burn a “victim zone.” I’m not going to argue vociferously here. Yeah, if someone decided to show up and start shooting into a crowd at a burn, the likelihood of anyone having a gun to shoot back is close to nil.

It’s going to sound hipster as fuck, but: if you can’t feel safe without a gun on you, you probably shouldn’t be at a burn in the first place. The atmosphere at a regional is one of trusting strangers without cause, of open friendship and happiness. Keeping a gun on you is antithetical to the concept of a burn. Also, put simply, I can defend myself without a firearm. I’ve done so dozens of times in the past. Radical Self Reliance and all that shit.

Finally, this is a place where a lot of people are probably on drugs and booze. People will offer said things to you. You may even accept. And that’s not a place you want to take a firearm.

If you can’t have fun without a firearm on your hip… I don’t know what to say. I’m a pretty big gun nut, and yet I still have no problem going to concerts, conventions, and regional burns where I can’t keep my pistol on me. I still have fun. And hey, it’s okay if you don’t go to these venues for that reason. I’m not being condescending – if you seriously have a mental need for a pistol on you at all times, then you already know that your entertainment options are limited. Don’t like the few rules they have? Don’t go to a burn.

And now: FUCK YOUR JOURNEY.

http://youtu.be/HYkfBtJwXn4