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Man Carrying Four Guns Arrested in Pelosi’s Hotel

A man was arrested Saturday after trying to walk into Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s (D-Calif.) hotel with two hunting rifles and two pistols.

Denver police officers stopped Joseph Calanchini, 29, at the door of the Grand Hyatt hotel in downtown Denver, said John Hahn, a spokesman for the Denver Joint Information Center. But Calanchini, a resident of Pinedale, Wyo., apparently had no violent intentions.

“It didn’t have anything to do specifically with the Speaker or have anything to do with the DNC itself,” he said.

Calanchini was in town for a work-related meeting. He brought his guns to the city to get the scopes checked out at a local Denver store, in preparation of an upcoming hunting trip in Africa, said Howard Paul, another spokesman at the information center. Paul said he did not know if the guns were loaded.

However, Calanchini remained in police custody Sunday and faces one charge of the unlawful carrying of a weapon, meaning he did not have a permit to carry a concealed weapon in Denver (but may have a permit in his home state). The misdemeanor carries a maximum one-year sentence.

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