In reply to Kenny Flagg.

Kenny: This incident didn't occur at the conference proper, so any discussion of how the conference should have handled it if it had will be tangential.

Still, it's worth noting that while carrying a concealed firearm with a license is legal, it is also legal for a conference to ban concealed firearms from its space. People who violate such a ban can be removed from the premises and may be fined, even if they have committed no criminal act.

It's also worth noting that all skeptic conferences in the U.S. should certainly have rules explicitly banning concealed firearms on conference grounds. It's perfectly possible for someone to responsibly carry a concealed weapon, but to my knowledge no U.S. state requires adequate firearms safety training, so there is no general way for conferences to reliably determine which firearms-bearers are responsible and trustworthy. Whether it's legal is beside the point, if the conference organizers are primarily concerned with ensuring their attendees' safety and not just with enforcing local laws. Burning books, yodeling, and setting up a slip-'n'-side are similarly legal acts, but that doesn't mean that conferences are obliged to let random attendees do those things in rooms or buildings they've reserved.