SHOT Show is Just Around the Corner
Stay with the GunLink Team for Complete SHOT Show 2016 Coverage
The National Shooting Sports Foundation (NSSF) SHOT Show 2016 is just two short weeks away, and the GunLink team will be there from the opening shots of the pre-show Industry Day at the Range until after the show ends to bring you complete coverage of the latest and greatest guns, gear, and more that is coming soon in the shooting, hunting, and outdoor fields.
Watch the GunLink Blog for detailed coverage of SHOT Show 2016 and participate by joining the discussion in the NSSF SHOT Show boards on the GunLink Forums. For more frequent up-to-the-minute updates throughout the show, be sure to follow GunLink on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.
The 38th annual Shooting, Hunting, and Outdoor Trade Show – SHOT Show – runs from Tuesday, January 19 through Friday, January 22 at the Sands Expo Center in Las Vegas. This is the largest show of its kind, drawing tens of thousands of attendees. The 2015 show drew approximately 64,000 attendees – second only to the 2014 show’s 67,000. The heart of the show that brings such a massive crowd? The 1,600 exhibitors who cover more than 13 acres of exhibit space to showcase their wares.
At Industry Day at the Range on January 18 in Boulder City, we will have the opportunity to visit with manufacturers and see the latest firearms in action with some live-fire trigger time – which is always a “blast”. Featuring over 170 manufacturers exhibiting, and over 500,000 rounds of ammunition shot, Industry Day is the premier shooting event in the industry, giving outdoor media and buyers the opportunity to shoot and test new products for the upcoming year. This year’s exhibiting companies include firearms, ATV and truck demos, knife throwing, archery and more.
For those of you lucky enough to be going to the SHOT Show to see it for yourself, there are a number of tools to make your visit easier. Plan meet-ups, talk about what you’ve seen, get pointers, and more in the SHOT Show thread on the GunLink forums. Find exhibitors, schedule meetings with vendors, take notes, and plan your show with SHOT Show mobile, available as an app for Android and iOS devices and as a mobile site for Windows and Blackberry devices. This will, no doubt, make it easier to navigate the 630,000 square feet and 12.5 miles of aisles on the show floor!
Of course, all of this great coverage of the best new products that shooters care about wouldn’t be possible without our valuable partners.
Brownells, and Pete Brownell in particular, has been among the earliest and biggest supporters of new media in the firearms industry – going so far as to host the New Media Meetup Lunch at previous SHOT Shows – in addition to offering an enormous selection of firearm parts and accessories. Brownells has been Serious About Firearms for over 75 years – since 1939!
If you are seeking information about the latest and greatest advancements in the firearms industry, then chances are that you are an ardent supporter of our Second Amendment Right to Keep and Bear Arms. What better way to make sure that those advancements continue by protecting that market and helping to ensure that we keep those rights strong than joining the National Rifle Association – one of the oldest and largest civil rights organizations in the United States.
Northwood Components offers a full line of aftermarket triggers that can turn an ordinary KelTec pistol into a sweet shooting little carry gun. The machined aluminum triggers virtually eliminate finger pinch and provide a lighter perceived trigger pull although the actual trigger pull weight and safety of the firearm are not effected. Pops’s trigger upgrade has been featured on the GunLink Blog and in our P11 Improvement Project.
Concealed carry and open carry practitioners from all over the United States, and gun owners in general, will find the Gun Laws by State guide invaluable. The guide, written by a prominent gun law author and nationally recognized gun law attorney, covers reciprocity, constitutional & federal law, use of force, civil & criminal liability, preemption, and more in its 360 pages, which include over 1,000 updates for 2016.
Not a CCW permit holder yet? If the time requirements of the class are holding you back, The Carry Academy has the solution: take your CCW class online in under an hour for less than $50 to satisfy the training requirements needed in order to obtain your concealed carry permit in over 20 states. The majority of these states allow you to carry a concealed weapon by obtaining a Virginia nonresident permit. The course also satisfies training requirements for resident permits in Iowa, Oregon and Virginia.
If your 2016 New Years resolutions include being more prepared for natural or man-made disasters, you can hope for the best but prepare for the worst with shelf-stable food from Wise Food Storage. Great tasting meals with the ease of just-add-water, the peace of mind of 25-year shelf life, and the pride of being Made in the USA.
DOJ Awards $2.4 Million Grant to NSSF’s Project ChildSafe
The National Shooting Sports Foundation® (NSSF®) announced today that it has been awarded a two-year, $2.4 million grant by the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ). Funds will go toward providing firearm safety education messaging and free gun locks through NSSF’s Project ChildSafe program to communities throughout the country, to encourage responsible firearm storage and help reduce firearm accidents, theft and misuse.
“We thank the Department of Justice for its recognition of this important program,” said Steve Sanetti, NSSF’s President and CEO. “We’ll work to build on previous efforts and further raise awareness of the simple precautions gun owners can take to store firearms securely when not in use.”
The grant award is a strong endorsement of the effectiveness of programs like Project ChildSafe, which since 1999 has distributed more than 37 million free firearm safety kits across the country and in five U.S. territories. Thousands of law enforcement agencies, hunting and conservation groups, and firearms retailers already participate in Project ChildSafe and have been instrumental in expanding the reach of the program’s safety messages. The new grant from DOJ will likewise be instrumental in making even more free gun locks available to more gun owners nationwide.
“Programs like Project ChildSafe work because proper storage of firearms when not in use is the number one way to help prevent firearm accidents, misuse and theft,” Sanetti said. “We’re honored to be recognized by the DOJ in our efforts to promote that message and going the extra step to make a means of safe storage readily available to gun owners.”
NSSF Signs Three-Year Deal with ConvExx for SHOT Show
The National Shooting Sports Foundation (NSSF) is pleased to announce that it has renewed its agreement with trade show management company ConvExx to continue its partnership with NSSF’s SHOT Show through 2018 and beyond.
Based in Las Vegas, ConvExx is privately held and has produced more than 200 shows and events. ConvExx will also be working more closely with NSSF on its Exhibitor Academy, Industry Summit, Sponsor Summit, Import/Export Conference, retailer compliance seminars and other events as part of this extended agreement.
“With the tremendous level of success and positive feedback we received from the past two shows, we believe that a long-term partnership with ConvExx is a good fit for our show, for our members and for our industry,” said Chris Dolnack, NSSF Senior Vice President and Chief Marketing Officer. “ConvExx brings a customer-centric focus, collaborative culture and a track record of innovation that help make the customer experience memorable. ConvExx also understands the nuances and sensitivities of an industry such as ours.” Continue reading
2015 NSSF Industry Summit Hits High Notes
Keynote presenter Seth Mattison at the 2015 NSSF Industry Summit.
The 2015 NSSF Industry Summit, held this past week in Savannah, Georgia, is one that will go down on the books. Setting a new attendance record and sold to capacity, firearms industry professionals met for two days of presentations that garnered a wealth of accolades from those who traveled from all across the country to engage in discussions aimed at increasing hunter and shooting sports participation in America.
The central theme of the 2015 Industry Summit, diversity, is one that proved the industry is preparing to significantly change the way it does business.
“We’ve talked loosely about diversity for years,” said Chris Dolnack, NSSF Senior Vice President and Chief Marketing Officer, “but there’s never been a cohesive effort across the industry as a whole to address this subject and innovate change. This year’s Industry Summit showed us that we’re about to experience a ground-swell shift in that attitude. Summit attendees came fully prepared, arriving with focused, on-point questions about what changes they need to make in their businesses to embrace a new consumer audience. Rewarded with a panel of speakers who presented numerous models of success that that are replicable from manufacturer to retailer, wildlife agency to public range, Summit attendees took away viable avenues of change that will positively impact our industry in the months to come.” Continue reading
Another 41P Pushback? Good News for NFA Enthusiasts.
According to yesterday’s NSSF Bullet Points newsletter, it looks like a final ruling on 41P – the rule change that would modify the process of transferring or making NFA firearms for legal entities – may get pushed back again.
The newsletter, under the heading “No Implementation Yet Seen for Notice 41P as Final Rule” reads: “NSSF has confirmed with ATF that the bureau is unlikely to publish Notice 41P (NFA Trusts) as a Final Rule for quite some time. This is in part because EPS resources are being diverted to help process the 310,000 public comments received in response to the armor piercing ammunition framework proposal. In addition, it seems ATF has not prepared to revise the NFA database so that it can track “responsible persons” for NFA trusts. The proposed rule would require the responsible person(s) on an NFA Trust be fingerprinted.”
As we previously reported, the BATFE received over 9000 comments on Notice 41P and is required to address each issue raised in those comments. With resources diverted to processing the gargantuan number of ammo ban comments, processing 41P comments – perhaps seen as a back-burner issue – may have stalled.
Short of flat-out discarding the entire 41P proposal, this lack of movement on the issue and further delay of a final ruling (if it ever even happens, instead of just quietly disappearing) is some of the better news that could come on the subject. Further delay of a ruling gives those wishing to own NFA-regulated items, such as supressors and short-barreled rifles, using a trust (which you can even get online) more time to establish that trust and get their required paperwork filed.
2015 SHOT Show Posts Second Highest Attendance Total Ever
The Shooting, Hunting and Outdoor Trade Show (SHOT Show) rang up its second highest attendance ever at the Sands Expo Center Jan. 20-23, giving the industry a very good indicator that a strong sales year lies ahead.
Long a bellwether for the industry’s prospects, the SHOT Show brings together buyers and sellers from the United States and more than 100 countries. Total attendance for the 2015 SHOT Show was nearly 64,000, second only to last year’s record-setting event, where nearly 67,000 came through the turnstiles. Lower attendance reflected strengthened pre-screening of attendees to enhance the overall experience of both exhibitors and buyers.
“We know from long experience that attendance at the SHOT Show is a reflection of the state of our industry,” said Chris Dolnack, NSSF Senior Vice President and Chief Marketing Officer. “This second highest attendance is in keeping with what we saw in the past year — that our industry is in good health and that manufacturers, wholesalers and retailers have a positive outlook for this year.”
NSSF®, the trade association for the firearms, ammunition, hunting and shooting sports industry, owns and sponsors the SHOT Show.
From the opening bell, the show floor hummed with traffic. Cindy Daniel, Executive Vice President of Daniel Defense, a major sponsor of the SHOT Show, said, “It’s been a very busy show. We’re optimistic that with the good vibe we’re seeing on the floor sales will pick up again and we’ll have a solid year.”
Said Kort Nielson with Silencer Co., “We’ve been pretty busy, and there hasn’t been Continue reading
