City responds to Nugent-Berglund Center gun policy

ROANOKE, Va.- – Fans of the musician Ted Nugent are still reacting to the change in gun policy during his performance at the Berglund Center on Tuesday night.

After a last-minute switch by Nugent's management to not allow weapons inside, Nugent says he directed that guns absolutely be allowed in his concert.

Nugent is a gun rights supporter. In a Facebook post this morning, he says guns were welcome at his concert. 

Roanoke City Attorney Dan Callaghan was at the concert, observing the surroundings during the performance.

Berglund Center staff heard an announcement made by the staff of Nugent, directing people who had brought their weapons to take them back to their cars. 

He says normally, people can bring guns into the Berglund Center but it's up to the group holding the event to ban guns or not. 

Callaghan adds Roanoke's hockey team, the Rail Yard Dogs, has it in their contract that guns are not allowed inside during their games.

"The general requirement is that the civic center or any public property that is used by a particular private party for any particular purposes, it is there space for that time. And as such, they can put restrictions that the city cannot. In the case of the Berglund Center, Ted Nugent and his group made the decision late in the day yesterday that they prefer fire arms not be brought into the  civic center during Mr. Nugent's performance. And so that announcement was made to the attendees before they entered the civic center and I think generally folks accepted it and dealt with the issue. But it was a decision made by Ted Nugent group not by the city or the management company that manages the civic center.

A statement from the Berglund Center Management said, "We stand by what we said Tuesday night and that is the end of our Ted Nugent Story."

Guns are not permitted inside courthouses and school property, according to the Virginia State Code.