With McCain on hand, knives won't cut it at massive NRA gunfest

Saturday, May 17th 2008, 4:00 AM

LOUISVILLE, Ky. - A small but startling sign welcomed the gun lovers who arrived at the National Rifle Association's annual gathering Friday.

"Firearms WILL NOT be allowed in Hall A during the Celebration of American Values Leadership Forum."

Beyond this sign at the Kentucky Exposition Center was a row of 10 metal detectors. They were manned by uniformed Secret Service officers deployed because the scheduled speakers included presumptive Republican nominee John McCain.

The Secret Service sets the rules in such circumstances, and even NRA big shots had to go through the screening. Thousands found themselves standing in a long, slow, feeder line before they even reached one of the lines that stretched in front of each metal detector.

Many had been alerted to the no-firearms edict, so few arrived packing.

"I got a gun in the car," said Deborah Phelps of Fredonia, Ky.

The alert, however, said nothing about pocketknives, which seemingly everybody here was carrying. Hundreds of conventiongoers finally reached the detectors only to be told they could not be admitted with an implement they had never even considered to be a weapon.

Yet another long line formed at a glassed-in kiosk where a pair of Expo Center security guards agreed to watch over the knives.

"It's kind of ironic, isn't it?" Rob Stevens of Bedford, Ky., said. "We preach the right to carry everywhere, and we got to start by turning in a pocketknife."

A pair of Long Islanders who had driven 800 miles to attend the gathering turned in their tickets rather than suffer the humiliation of standing in line to surrender a tiny knife.

"It's supposed to be about freedom," said Anne-Marie Biggins of Bethpage as she stood with Brian O'Connor of Farmingdale.

A 16-year-old local boy named Zachary Hicks who arrived in uniform was turned away because he had a folding knife.

Barbara Heetderts of Dallas was about to follow her husband through the screening when an officer found she had six spent shell casings. She was barred from entry.

"Why?" she asked. "It's empty brass cases."

"They're cartridges," the officer said.

"No, they're cases," she replied. "A cartridge has powder, a primer and a bullet in it."

"I'm saying you can't take them in," the officer said.

Her empty cases joined hundreds of knives, scissors and nail clippers at the kiosk. The line now stretched across the lobby, and the woman running the German Roasted Nuts stand on the far side began taking knives and placing them in white paper bags bearing the owner's name.