Lobbying in Washington is a tough business

Monday, October 6, 2014

The Washington, D.C., office building might be called the Cannon House, but that doesn't mean you get to carry a cannon when you go there, as a prominent pork producer found out in July.

Ronald William Prestage, 59, head of Prestage Farms, a large South Carolina pork and turkey operation, and president-elect of the National Pork Producers Council (NPPC), the American industry's lobby group, was arrested carrying a loaded nine-millimetre Ruger handgun into a government office building. According to the Washington Post newspaper, the weapon was discovered during a routine search. Allegations of carrying a concealed weapon remain unproven in court.

The century-old building is not named after a weapon but after a long-serving speaker of the House of Representatives and offices of representatives are there. Press reports indicate that Prestage was not in the building on NPPC business, but police wouldn't comment on what the defendant told them.

Mistakes happen. Five days before, the assistant of a Republican congressman was arrested carrying an unloaded gun into the same building in his attaché case.

Prestage Farms website boasts of "state-of-the-art facilities" producing nearly 850 million pounds of pork annually from 170,000 sows. BP