Reggie, you say that "no one was infringing on anyone else, in my case. Nor was anyone obstructing the public in my case." However your point, as I understand it, is that even if you had been doing this their action would still have been unlawful.

I cannot understand how it is possible to organise any large event without exercising some control over the people attending, whether they're the audience or performers. Otherwise the result would be at best chaos and at worst dangerous. However that is what you appear to be advocating.

Your argument appears to be that the First Amendment gives you the right to perform when and where you like without regard to what else is going on. Perhaps so, but all I'm saying is that if you're going to attend a large event life NWF (and take advantage of the crowds it attracts) then a bit of give and take is necessary, which may include accepting some measure of control by the organisers. Otherwise, the reductio ad absurdum is that the event itself is unconstitutional because it will inevitably infringe someone's rights.

As for the way you were treated, I'm not disagreeing with your version of events but,with respect, perhaps the NWF's representative saw the situation differently. Perhaps he used poor judgement in the situation, or perhaps he just liked to throw his weight around. Perhaps the police were called because he felt you were being confrontational, rather than because of your original "offence" against the rules. I don't know. However just because the rules may have been enforced incorrectly, unfairly, perhaps even unlawfully, doesn't mean that NWF is wrong to have some rules.

Incidentally, I see the "rules" also prohibit knives and firearms, so there goes the Second Amendment as well. That seems sensible to me too, but I'm from the UK where we think guns are a bad thing.