Bucket List

Just over a month ago, this was official NRA policy: "Everyone gets a gun." We warned of the dangerous folly of this policy. But of course, the NRA and its "TEA" powered allies refused to listen.

Charles Vacca was a firearms instructor at Last Stop, a gun range in White Hills, Arizona. Bullets And Burgers is Last Stop's tourist promotion that brings tourists from Las Vegas and up Highway 93 to the gun range with promises of "exotic" automatic weapons, "Desert Storm atmosphere", and lunch included. Earlier this week, Charles Vacca gave a nine year old girl an Uzi military grade submachine gun to fire. This was the result of that fateful decision.



Charles Vacca was brought to Las Vegas for medical attention, but it was too late. He died. He had been shot by the Uzi he had given to the nine year old girl to use at the range.

And now, we must all endure the painful aftermath. We must all confront the haunting questions left behind at Bullets And Burgers.



Of course, the usual suspects don't want to confront anything seen as challenging their "conventional wisdom". Under its "@NRAWomen account, the NRA actually tweeted "7 Ways Children Can Have Fun at the Shooting Range". And yes, the NRA actually tweeted this out yesterday.

When interviewed by Chris Hayes on MSNBC yesterday, Last Stop operator Sam Scarmardo said he plans to seek guidance from the NRA and other gun groups going forward. Perhaps he should rethink seeking any kind of guidance from the NRA.



On average, seven American children are shot dead every day. This nine year old girl could have killed herself along with Charles Vacca. Why on earth are children shooting Uzis at ranges like Last Stop?

On MSNBC last night, Sam Scarmardo defended Last Stop's decision to allow that nine year old child to shoot that Uzi by claiming "this was a big -- something that was high on her bucket list to do and her parents took her out to do what she was gonna do." Bucket list? Really? Is the "Children's Death Wish Bucket List" supposed to be the new "killer Las Vegas tourist attraction"?

"High on her bucket list"? Really, NRA? And really, LVCVA? If this is truly our new pitch to tourists, then perhaps we should become accustomed to seeing more numbers like these.

BREAKING: Las Vegas Enters 21st Century, Markets to LGBTQ Tourists

I have been wondering for some time when the Las Vegas gaming/tourism powers that be would wake up and smell the lavender. I guess they're finally getting there.

Print ads, websites and YouTube spots tout the offerings of Wynn Las Vegas, Paris, Luxor, Mandalay Bay and several other Strip operators that have steadily increased their efforts to lure dollars that reflexively went to the traditionally open-minded resort destinations of Palm Springs, Key West, Miami Beach and Provincetown. The LVCVA produces suggestive ads—two women with shapely legs playing footsie, a pair of fit young men holding hands on a golf course as Wynn Las Vegas looms in the background. They’re alluring images at the start of what Wynn Las Vegas marketer Michael Weaver dubs the “post-gay consumer marketing world,” a period when ad agencies seek to reach individual customers with the promise of luxury, entertainment, good food and sensuality—a classic quartet of offerings on the modern-day Strip.

Las Vegas consistently ranks among the top business and leisure destinations for the 4,296 LGBT travelers surveyed by Community Marketing. New York, San Francisco and Las Vegas typically hold the top three spots, with lesbians between the ages of 18 and 54 choosing Las Vegas as their favorite getaway. Gay men widely preferred New York City and San Francisco. “Las Vegas is really show-driven and those shows have a very gay spin—Cher, Bette Midler, Cirque du Soleil, Elton John. It’s good for Las Vegas to bring them in,” says Community Marketing’s [David] Paisley.

“Las Vegas is its own animal. It’s true that Vegas doesn’t have its own gay neighborhood like other cities do,” Paisley says, “but from a tourism perspective, Las Vegas is about the Strip. Gays and lesbians are coming to Las Vegas for the same reason everyone is coming to Las Vegas.”

So LVCVA finally has a full LGBTQ travel site up, and other casinos and tourist attractions are catching up to what Caesars, Wynn, and MGM have been learning over the last decade.

Speaking as a gay person myself who follows what's happening on The Strip, I can tell you there's still far more work to be done to let queer folk feel comfortable enough to visit Las Vegas and visit more often. Even though I often walk blithely around my Henderson 'hood with an "I <3 Castro" or HRC t-shirt, many gay couples are still afraid to hold hands while walking Las Vegas Blvd. What's wrong with this picture? Unfortunately, part of the reason why many LGBTQ tourists still feel ambivalent about Vegas is because of the huge mistake Nevada embarked upon a decade ago when Question 2 passed and discrimination was written into the Nevada Constitution. And though we've now somewhat corrected the situation with domestic partnerships and long awaited progress on transgender civil rights, that's still far from full equality.

Another part of the problem is that until very recently, there was never really talk of a comprehensive plan to fully market Vegas as "THE gay travel destination". Even local business leaders recognize we have a problem. We are more than just nightclub revelers and kinky sex machines. We want to sleep, we want to eat, we want to shop, and we want to explore.

At least we're now seeing LVCVA make the effort. That's a big start, and we're now moving in the right direction. Now if we can only get rid of that pesky Question 2...

"Camp Vegas", Comeback Kid?

So LVCVA has decided upon a new marketing campaign, "Camp Vegas"...





And we're all wondering what's going on. Where's the camp?

Obviously, this is not really the "summer camp" we expected as kids. This is "camp for grownups", complete with pool parties, "beachside" gambling, and plentiful liquor. It all sounds so happy and fun...

But wait, when was the last time we were all happy here? Well, perhaps there's good reason to be happy again.

The Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority said 3,224,697 people visited the city in March, compared to 3,202,344 visitors in March 2009, which is an increase of 0.7 percent. March marks the seventh straight month of visitor volume exceeding prior year levels.

Hotel occupancy across the valley dropped 3.5 percent because about 8,000 additional hotel rooms were added in the past year, bringing the total number of rooms to 148,891.

The average daily room rate increased 0.8 percent in the past year, from $92.46 to $93.23, the LVCVA said. The number of room nights occupied increased 0.8 percent to nearly 3.8 million.

Convention attendance was up 5.2 percent, while the number of conventions dropped 2.9 percent, according to the LVCVA numbers.

The number of passengers arriving to and departing from McCarran International Airport dropped 4 percent, while traffic at the Nevada/California line on Interstate 15 was up 6.2 percent.

And although other parts of the state (including Downtown and the 'burbs here in Clark County) are still suffering declining gaming revenue, The Strip continued on its winning streak.

Casinos along the Las Vegas Strip posted their fourth increased win in the past five months in March, buoyed by strong performances in Baccarat and sports betting with the college basketball tournament. [...]

Strip casinos posted $467 million in, up 2.4 percent. For the first three months of the year, the gaming win on the Strip increased by 9.8 percent.

For the 11st consecutive month, the 17 casinos that have Baccarat reported an increase, up to $52.7 million.

Sports betting jumped 527.5 percent to $7.6 million. Players lost $12.1 million in basketball during the time of the NCAA basketball tournament.

Frank Streshley, chief of tax and licensing for the board, said the high-end play is coming back on the Strip, and convention business has been strong.

“We hit the bottom and are slowly climbing out,” he said.

Well, it's far better to be climbing up from the bottom than still sliding toward an endless, bottomless pit. What a difference a year makes!

Again, things aren't perfect just yet. Vegas hasn't fully healed yet... But we're now on our way. Vegas is coming back, baby!

And hey, what better way to celebrate than throw a "summer camp" for all our guests? I'm digging it. :-)