TWO OF THE REASONS I WON’T BE AT THE SHOT SHOW THIS YEAR | (backwoodshome.com)
Hotels are being openly hostile to Gun People and for some reason (contract?) NSSF still insists on doing business with them.
I believe you can have 2 SHOT shows a year (Florida, Texas, Tennessee, Arizona, etc) and make it productive for the companies. Hell, they can actually sell tickets and people would buy them.
Or they can simply go very big and share the same locations with the NRA Annual Meeting: One weekend NSSF and then open up for NRA members and visitors.
And I have the feeling Las Vegas will become a San Francisco within a decade as online gambling is now a thing. Might as well leave now.
Have it somewhere around Sandusky, OH. The hotels are used to people there for the Nationals.
Last time I was there was for a course on Monte Carlo simulation – the instructor felt it an venue given the topic and the hotels were cheap. They aren’t any more.
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I really don’t care for the town itself. Reminds me too much of Atlantic City, which I got to watch go down as I grew up.
SHOT has a contract with the Sands through 2027. I’m hoping at that point that consideration will be made for another location. However, I don’t expect it to leave Vegas. They tried moving it around and, my understanding, a whole bunch of big wigs pushed for a “permanent” location for it and NSSF signed a long term contract to host it in Vegas back in 2009.
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I worked SHOT twice, once in Orlando and once in Vegas. While my time in Vegas wasn’t unpleasant, if I never have to return to Vegas then I am just fine with that. Just my observations after spending over a decade in and around the gun industry, but (IMO) it seems that more benefit was gained from the smaller shows and SHOT hung on as the big dog because (1) it’s the first show of the year, (2) it’s tradition, and (3) it’s the main event for everyone in the industry to catch up and see who is working for who now . . . and also get completely housed for an entire week on the company’s dime.