That's hardly new. I've seen that sort of problem with peacebonding in pretty much every con I've ever gone to, over the past 20 years or so..
The problem is that only a select few on con-staff actually know what "peace bonding" is about. The rest (including lots of folks who really should know, but just don't bother to find out, because they figure it's not their job) just think of it as "zip-tie the weapons". If it's zip-tied, it's ok. This is compounded when people who are new to the whole thing ask somebody in charge, and are told exactly that. Then those people later go on to be the ones actually doing the peace-bonding, and presto, you get zip-tied sticks.
And of course nobody out on the con floor is actually going to know or care. They just know to look for zip-ties, and if they see one, they figure it's been ok'd by con-ops, so it's not their problem. I've never actually heard of any con doing what really should be done and sitting down with all of the staffers and volunteers before things start and laying out "look, this is the policy, and this is the reason for it, and if you see a weapon, even if it's got a zip-tie, ask yourself "could it be used to hurt somebody", and if the answer is yes, tell somebody."
Of course I don't think I've ever seen any con properly explain their peace-bonding policy to the con-goers either, which really doesn't help, especially on those few occasions when somebody does get confronted about it..
But yeah, no big surprise, and not exactly unique to AX..
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The problem is that only a select few on con-staff actually know what "peace bonding" is about. The rest (including lots of folks who really should know, but just don't bother to find out, because they figure it's not their job) just think of it as "zip-tie the weapons". If it's zip-tied, it's ok. This is compounded when people who are new to the whole thing ask somebody in charge, and are told exactly that. Then those people later go on to be the ones actually doing the peace-bonding, and presto, you get zip-tied sticks.
And of course nobody out on the con floor is actually going to know or care. They just know to look for zip-ties, and if they see one, they figure it's been ok'd by con-ops, so it's not their problem. I've never actually heard of any con doing what really should be done and sitting down with all of the staffers and volunteers before things start and laying out "look, this is the policy, and this is the reason for it, and if you see a weapon, even if it's got a zip-tie, ask yourself "could it be used to hurt somebody", and if the answer is yes, tell somebody."
Of course I don't think I've ever seen any con properly explain their peace-bonding policy to the con-goers either, which really doesn't help, especially on those few occasions when somebody does get confronted about it..
But yeah, no big surprise, and not exactly unique to AX..