NSSF: 2021 SHOT Show Moving Forward
The Show Must Go On
In the midst of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, which has been shutting down businesses and grinding trade shows to a halt (I have missed exhibiting at two and attending another two already), firearms industry trade organization National Shooting Sports Foundation (NSSF) has announced that the 2021 SHOT Show will go on as planned.
The Shooting Hunting and Outdoor Trades Show, scheduled for January 19-22, is the largest show of its kind. With the expansion into the brand new Caesars Forum, this 43rd iteration of the SHOT Show will be the biggest one yet – featuring nearly three-quarters of a million square feet (nearly 17 acres) of exhibit space.
Despite rumors that several big names are already pulling back from the show over Coronavirus concerns, NSSF said that the SHOT Show team has spent the past month working with industry manufacturers and suppliers to confirm exhibitors and plans to have nearly 3,000 booths on display.
“The health and safety of our attendees, exhibitors, media, and our employees is a foremost priority,” noted NSSF Senior VP, Chris Dolnack. “We are in constant contact with our partners monitoring the latest developments in the COVID-19 pandemic as well as clarifying important safety protocols and guidelines for large events.”
Dolnack said that, although the 2021 SHOT Show may feel a bit different thanks to health and safety precautions (likely meaning mask requirements, lower attendance, social distancing guidelines, and so on), the critical buying and networking opportunities should be very much the same.
From the opening shots of the invite-only SHOT Show Range Day to the 17 acres of exhibit floor, the GunLink team will be at the show to bring you the latest news, product releases, and reviews as we celebrate our 10th year of SHOT Show coverage.
Stay tuned to the GunLink Blog and GunLink Forums for full coverage and be sure to follow us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram for live updates before, during, and after the show.
Do We Really Have a Gun Problem? The Facts Don’t Lie.
Forget the Rhetoric. Let’s Take a Look at the Cold, Hard Numbers
Every time some violent madman, such as the islamic terrorist who recently killed a club full of people in Orlando, happens to use a firearm to carry out their perverted mission, the anti-gun left intone their mantra of “you never want a serious crisis to go to waste” and spool up their rhetoric machine to incite fear and hand-wringing among the masses while they try to use emotion to push for new legislation. “Something must be done about guns!,” they shout. “Ban ‘assault rifles’!” “We have a serious gun problem!” But do we really? The short answer is no, and here’s why…
People die. That is how life works; it eventually draws to an end as the curtains close and we shuffle off this mortal coil. When people die, it is from a variety of causes. If you are into the macabre, try to catch some reruns of 1,000 Ways to Die – we will only be discussing this in the abstract.
FACT: More people have been shot and killed in Chicago so far this year than were killed by all types of rifles in all of 2014.
GunLink Blog Reaches Milestone
The GunLink Blog has reached a milestone. We have successfully banged away at our keyboards enough to pass the quarter-million-words-published mark.
If each word were one mile long, you could stretch them out and reach the moon, even at apogee. Of course, if each one were $1USD, you could just buy a seat on a Virgin Galactic flight and get there quicker. If you had those dollars in the bank, the FDIC wouldn’t even insure all of them. On the other hand, if they were Turkish Lira, you could easily fit it in your pocket.
According to Oxford Dictionaries, we could have simply listed every distinct word in the English language and realized this same auspicious achievement. However, we like guns – and, if you are reading GunLink, you presumably have at least some passing interest in them as well – so we thought that everyone’s time would be better spent if we arranged a selection of those words in such a manner as to pique that interest.
If each of those 250,000 words was a firearm, it would almost be as many firearms as are illegally smuggled into Mexico each year – thanks in part to the DOJ, Eric Holder, and Fast & Furious. If they were rounds of ammunition, it would equal what this truck driver accidentally drove in to Juarez. If, again, each of those 250,000 words was a dollar, it would cover the amount that Mayor Rahm Emanuel wants for useless gun buybacks in violent gun-control mecca Chicago. It would also cover the amount of insurance that DC wants to require gun owners to carry or the pocket-change that Michael Bloomberg dropped to get a fellow gun-grabber elected. Despite their strict gun control, Australia has as many outlawed firearms in circulation as we have words published. Continue reading
Connect with Local Second Amendment Supporters on the States Forums
GunLink Local Discussion Boards Get a Makeover
The shooting community, and Second Amendment advocates in general, have always been a relatively tight-knit group. It is always refreshing to see the camaraderie between the good, honest people from all walks of life who show up to big events like the NRA Annual Meetings or the biannual machine gun shoots at Knob Creek and Big Sandy or industry events like SHOT Show. That camaraderie is perhaps even more evident on a smaller scale such as on a competition circuit, shooting club, or informal get-together of friends participating in the shooting sports.
In the political realm, the phrase “grassroots” is often bandied about (despite its invasion by “astroturf” movements) because, realistically, concerned individuals working together to effect change is what brings about real legislative changes. This can be seen in gun-rights rallies, letter writing campaigns, and other local pushes to contact representatives to ensure that vox populi is heard. These days, it is easier than ever to connect, thanks to the internet.
The GunLink Forums has had state-by-state forums for a few years now. Those local discussion boards have served a number of purposes including, for several years, acting as an online rallying point for members of a national gun rights organization. During that period, the boards were largely limited to locating members in your area and chit-chat, even that of a local nature, was kept to a minimum.
The states’ forums have recently undergone another facelift with much of the old restrictions now removed. Under the new format, the local boards are open for any kind of discussion you like (within reason and within the general forum rules, of course). Open for discussion are all things relevant to members in your area, including shooting events, news, elections, firearm legislation, meetups, links to your buy/sell/trade listings in the GunLink Marketplace, and just about anything else.
To get started, visit the Get Local forums, or find your state below. Continue reading
List Your Business in the GunLink Directory with this #CyberMonday Deal
This Monday – December 1st, 2015 – marks the 9th anniversary of #CyberMonday being a thing. Cyber Monday is a term dreamt up by some marketing team to boost sales in online stores hoping to compete with the brick-and-mortar boon of Black Friday. What that means in practice, though, is that Cyber Monday is the day when office productivity around the globe plummets as people who a) didn’t want to deal with Black Friday crowds and B) didn’t get the day off from work surf the web to find amazing deals.
More recent than Cyber Monday is #SmallBusinessSaturday – a day meant to promote the engine of the American economy: small businesses. Here at GunLink, we love deals, we love small businesses, and, doggone it, we love America, so we’re offering a special deal on listings in the GunLink Directory: $10 off a Gold level listing and $15 off of a Platinum level listing. These deals will only last through Tuesday, December 2nd, so act now!
The GunLink Directory is the original nucleus of the GunLink family of online firearms resources. Over the years, that family has grown, but the directory remains at the heart. The GunLink Directory lives up to its name, providing a listing of links to firearms-related businesses and other web resources – an important tool for business operators of all sizes in an age when more and more search engines, social networking sites, payment services, and online marketplaces are showing their anti-gun roots and disallowing businesses with any relationship to the firearms industry. Continue reading
List your Firearms or Gear Related Business in the GunLink Directory
If you are reading this post, you obviously already know about the GunLink Blog. You might also visit the GunLink Forums to read or participate in discussions, firearms related or otherwise, with fellow firearms enthusiasts. But are you familiar with the original heart of GunLink?
GunLink’s origins (and name) come from the GunLink Directory – a yellow pages of sorts for firearms, hunting, shooting and gear related businesses. It is no secret that many popular search engines, social media outlets, auction sites and similar websites are rabidly anti-gun, so we wanted to provide an online resource to help firearms-friendly businesses connect with customers and potential customers. Thus, the GunLink Directory was born. Continue reading
