Earlier this week, the Complementary Spouse and I received confirmation that we had been approved for media credentials at the 2024 Dallas Safari Club Convention. That event is being held January 11th through 14th in Dallas. It will be the last time in Dallas as the event will move to Atlanta for a five year period while the Kay Bailey Hutchison Convention Center is being totally rebuilt. We plan to drive to Texas as it will give us more freedom to get around once we arrive in Dallas.
Next up on the agenda will be the 2024 SHOT Show in Las Vegas which begins on January 23rd with Industry Day at the Range on the preceding day. This will mark my 9th SHOT Show if you count attending the 1996 show in Dallas when I was working part-time for the original Paragon Cutlery. The difference in size and scope between 1996 is like night and day. In 1996, anything tactical including knives and modern sporting rifles was segregated from the rest of the show. Now they are an integral part of the show. As to size, the show has expanded to include the Caesars Forum in addition to its location in the Sands Expo Center.
The Complementary Spouse won’t be attending the SHOT Show and I will be cutting my visit short as I will be flying home on Friday, January 26th. The major reason for cutting it a little short is that we take off the next Wednesday for Nashville.
Rounding out the month will be the Safari Club International Convention in Nashville for which both the Complementary Spouse and I have media credentials. It starts on Wednesday, January 31st and runs through Saturday, February 3rd. This will mark the second year the convention has been held in Nashville. From everything I saw earlier this year, the move to Nashville from Las Vegas and Reno has attracted even more attendees.
As to why we are doing both the DSC Convention and the SCI Convention, while there is considerable overlap in exhibitors, they are just different from one another. While the former attracts a more Texas-centric crowd, the latter has a more international flavor. In years gone by, the Dallas Safari Club Convention was always seen as the more family friendly event but I think from what I saw in Nashville that this may be changing.
If there is something you want us to check out at any of these events, either leave a comment above or send an email to me at gunsandmoneyblog AT gmail DOT com. We will do our best to fulfill your requests.
I must have quite a number of enablers among my friends and acquaintances.
First, I was pondering whether to renew my Curios and Relics FFL. I’ve held the license since 1996 and it due for renewal. The pro’s and the con’s made renewing it a toss-up.
On the plus side, while the flood of milsurps from the 90s and early 2000s has dried up, more and more sporting rifles are becoming eligible. The FFL allows me to have eligible firearms shipped directly to my home and I don’t have to pay a transfer fee to an 01 FFL. Further, if I decide to thin out the herd, it will facilitate shipping the firearm to a new owner. Finally, as the Complementary Spouse reminded me, it is only $30 for three years. One argument against renewal meant I could destroy my A&D Bound Book. Unlike a regular dealer, I don’t have to submit my records to the ATF. The other was that I just don’t use it that much anymore.
I put a note up on the C&R FFL mailing list and did get some good advice. The first argument for renewal was that the cost of just one transfer fee paid for the license. The second, from someone who had let his license lapse and then reapplied for it, was that it was harder for the ATF to deny a renewal than to deny a new application. I think this given the Biden Administration’s hold on the ATF is what really convinced me. Thus, my renewal application as well as my notification letter to my local chief LEO went in the mail this morning.
Second, I was undecided if I could make the SHOT Show work in my schedule. While I am now retired from day job and don’t have to worry about missing work, the schedule can still get crowded. I have already planned to attend the Dallas Safari Club Convention and the Safari Club International Convention. The former is being held January 11th-14th while the latter is January 31st- February 3rd. The Complementary Spouse and I had planned to drive to Dallas for the DSC Convention which is a 2-day drive each way. The SHOT Show, if you include Industry Day at the Range, runs from January 22nd through January 26th. I would barely be back from Las Vegas before we hit the road for Nashville and the SCI Convention.
I’m not sure my next move was the smartest thing to do but I posted a query on Facebook asking for advice. And advice I got!
Yehuda reminded me that Southwest was having a sale on airfares. Amanda said I’d have FOMO (fear of missing out) if I didn’t come. Ace asked if I was kidding. Rob said it was the social event of the season. Kat wondered why anyone would want to go to Industry Day (it can be a zoo). And Michael was more interested in the fact that I was going to South Africa next June.
The bottom line is that I booked my flight on Southwest (which will disappoint my brother-in-law who is a retired Delta captain) and it was the cheapest I’ve ever seen it. I booked a room at the Flamingo at what seemed an Off the Strip price.
Going or not going was never an issue of cost but getting these bargains certainly helped make my decision. I think missing the Gun Rights Policy Conference this fall and having to miss the NRA Annual Meeting next May also weighed on me. I’ve made a lot of great friends over the years in the gun culture and I like seeing them face to face at events.
All I can say now is that January 2024 is going to be one busy month but it will be worth it.
The ANME Winter Expo, a trade show for military surplus retailers and wholesalers, is held in Las Vegas around the time of the SHOT Show. This year it is being held at the Westgate Las Vegas Resort from January 15th through the 17th. It attracts buyers from all over to look at the latest military surplus available as well as camping gear, survival gear, patches, clothing, and other military related items.
As I had arrived in Las Vegas a day early, I used time this morning to attend this trade show. I had attended it in 2019 and knew I’d find some interesting stuff. It has a much “homier” feel to it than the SHOT Show and fits into a large ballroom. The teachers’ conference, Get Your Teach On, held concurrently at the Westgate took up much more room.
In terms of true surplus, you could find all sorts of pouches, packs, clothing, boots, and even demilitarized RPGs. The vendor who had the RPG also had a working full-automatic, NFA-registered, M2 Browning machine gun in .50 BMG. I didn’t bother to ask the price!
There were a lot of morale patches being sold. I know from my times at gun shows, they are a popular item and the producers were here. Here is an example of a few I saw.
One of the first vendors I came across was AceCamp Outdoor Equipment. They had some really interesting items such as a top for a water bottle that dispensed liquid soap and then would squirt the water on your hands. As Mark Drennan, the owner, noted, hand sanitizer doesn’t clean your hand; it only gives you sanitized dirt.
Another product AceCamp had was a LED light to hang in your tent that also incorporated a bug zapper. I thought that was innovative.
I will be following up with AceCamp as they had a number of products that would be useful in prepping or even just when you lose power.
There were some other innovative products on which I’ll be doing posts in the future. That really is the beauty of this expo. You find some really innovative gear mixed in with the trinkets and military surplus. Just as when I found the Simple Shower in 2019 at the expo, this year I found the bug zapper LED light.
The smallest I attended was in 1996 in Dallas. Tactical and military was looked down upon back then. Those vendors were placed in an out of the way location of the Dallas Convention Center. One of the biggest vendors was Columbia Sportswear. I even got to see the late Gert Boyle, CEO of Columbia, when I walked the floor.
The largest SHOT Show for me will be this year. While the Caesar’s Forum was open last year, many vendors canceled over pandemic concerns. This year I anticipate both the Venetian Sands Expo Center and the Caesar’s Forum will be full.
The National Shooting Sports Foundation which puts on the SHOT Show has produced an infographic showing just how big an event it is. If you’ve followed this blog for any amount of time, you know I love my infographics!
The Complementary Spouse and I were able to attend a couple of days at the Safari Club International Convention in Las Vegas. It coincided with the SHOT Show which really worked out well for us.
Just like with those who push gun prohibition, the hunt prohibitionists are divided between the well-funded astroturf groups and the wannabe players like Compassion Works International. The former would include well-funded organizations like PETA, the Humane Society of the US, and theCenter for Biological Diversity. I would liken the latter to groups like the Coalition to Stop Gun Violence(sic). In other words, they put on “protests” with lots of advance fanfare that draw little more than a dozen protestors.
Frankly, I would not have even known of CWI if I hadn’t seen a mobile billboard like this one on Saturday, January 22nd, as we were leaving the Mandalay Bay complex.
After doing a bit of online sleuthing, I found their website and their social media pages. They call themselves “animal advocates” and “activists”. As part of their mission statement they say:
CWI is committed to ending speciesism and fostering a compassionate, vegan world that shows respect for the autonomy of all beings.
Ye gads!
They say that they participated in protests every night of the SCI Convention as part of the Worldwide Rally Against Trophy Hunting (WRATH). They say that they had people standing in solidarity with animals who braved the cold of Las Vegas to make their voices heard. The cold of Las Vegas? If I remember correctly the evening temperatures were in the 50s.
Here is a picture from one of their protests that I found on their Facebook page. I count all of 16 participants.
By contrast, the auctions and events held at the Safari Club International Convention raised over $15 million for wildife conservation and advocacy. I sincerely doubt that these protestors have ever considered funding anti-poaching efforts in Africa or even the United States.
While I am sure some of these protestors are well-intentioned, they fail to recognize their own neocolonialism and cultural imperialism. They believe that THEY – upper middle-class Americans – know what is best for Africans and not the scientists and wildlife conservationists on the ground in countries like Zimbabwe, Botswana, and Namibia (among many others). These and other African countries use a model of wildlife conservation where the wildlife policy is governed by science, that animals are considered a public resource, and that it is a shared resource that must not be wasted.
In the interest of full disclosure, I am a member of both the Dallas Safari Club and SCI. Also in the interest of full disclosure, I have treated the anti-hunting movement with disdain long before I learned of DSC and SCI.
If you have been following any of the Facebook or other social media sites with SHOT Show 2022 information, you know that many companies have dropped out of attending. You had SIG Sauer saying a few months ago that they were not coming due to Covid-19.
The list now includes major firearm companies like Ruger, Springfield Armory, Beretta, Benelli, Weatherby, Savage (I confirmed this at DSC), and CZ. Other industry stalwarts such as Trijicon, Swarovski, Redding, Nosler, and a whole host of others.
On the face of it, the oft-stated reason for not attending is the fear of the Coronavirus and the impact the spread of it would be to their employees. However, the imposition of contract tracing, enforced masking, etc. could actually be the reason behind many companies bagging the SHOT Show.
From an email I received tonight from Larry and Stacy Lasky of Froglube who have canceled out:
Since COVID struck in 2020, FrogLube attempted to continue our participation in SHOT SHOW despite unlawful, cost prohibitive and convoluted restrictions imposed by the governor of the state of Nevada. We looked to NSSF to stand up for our industry and to pressure the state authorities into allowing our trade show to return to normal. As a small business, any attempt to engage in commercial interaction with our customers under constantly changing, unrealistic and absurd restrictions is cost prohibitive and places an undue burden on our company.
We do not question the reality of the COVID 19 disease, in fact, most of us have had it. At issue is that a disease is not sufficient cause for the removal of god-given/inalienable rights by any man, government agency or commercial enterprise. Does the governor of Nevada restrict trade show attendance for any other communicable diseases with transmissibility? FrogLube and NSSF engage in free enterprise in an industry that uses individual rights as a selling point to attract people to purchase our firearms products. We find the NSSF stance is mutually incompatible to the expression of both the 1st and 2nd amendments of the US Constitution. How can we stress the 2nd amendment at the show while yielding on the 1st amendment?
My friend Ben Langlotz, the Gun Patent Attorney, with whom I had the pleasure of having a wonderful dinner in Dallas, has been very vocal about this loss of freedom on both Facebook and in his newsletter sent around the industry.
He had this to say in his newsletter and I’ve excerpted parts of it.
I’m skipping because of the mask mandate, pure and simple. As you have read in prior months, I was an optimist that our firearms industry culture is on the free-thinking side and not too trusting of governments, especially those dominated by politicians who want to take our guns. NASGW proved me right, and I trumpeted it in this space….
The NSSF leadership is in an impossible situation, forced to do business with the devil, tied up in contracts in jurisdictions that hate our freedoms, and having no power to negotiate around mandates. BUT…I’d feel more sympathetic to the NSSF if they at least offered something that told members that they were on our side, not that of the local democrat governments. A little signal that they weren’t happy either, like: “We believe our members have the right to make their own medical choices, and we oppose mask mandates. We have done all we can on behalf of the liberties of our members, and still face an unwanted mask mandate imposed by local regulations and enforced by local authorities. We are also working to locate suitable sites for future SHOT Shows that are more respectful of our members’ liberties, especially to ensure medical privacy and freedom of choice without ever being subject to vaccine passports. Like most of our members, we are not happy to be subjected to the mandates in Las Vegas.”…
Ben goes on to add that it is time for NSSF to move out of a place that treads on us while taking our money.
I wrote above that the NSSF has the unenviable task of being forced to do business with the devil in the form of Democrat authoritarians. But at some point, it becomes a choice. There may be contracts that could be broken if there’s the will to fight. There are the compromises that come with second-choice venues lacking the capacity and comfort we all value. It’s a lot more work to having a roving location for a trade show than to have the drill down (and booth locations memorized) at a familiar location, even with its faults.
But at some point (and I think we’re past it) it’s time to move on, and get out of a bad relationship. The SHOT Show needs to be in a Red State that has shown reasonable and restrained policies respectful of our freedoms. How they handled Covid signals what to expect from Las Vegas in the future. Will it be vaccine passports next year? Is there a contingency plan for that plausible scenario in Las Vegas? Don’t forget that the Mandalay Massacre gave Las Vegas Leftists and their Casino Cronies the excuse to deny our right to keep and bear arms when attending SHOT. How much more will we put up with?
I agree with Ben. I am not a fan of Las Vegas. In the harsh light of day, it is a grungy place which looks upon the tourist and convention goer as a Rube who must be separated from his money. Moreover, the state has now been taken over by the anti-gun, anti-freedom element.
Let us not forget that many of the big casino companies have helped fund gun control in Nevada. I wrote a post in 2016 that questioned why a number of hotels that had helped fund the universal background check initiative were official SHOT Show hotels. I suggested moving from Las Vegas to Orlando which had as many hotels and an equally large convention center. I remember getting pushback on Facebook when I suggested that. While we are going to SHOT this year, we will not be staying in any of those hotels. In fact, we decided to go “off strip” where we don’t have to pay a “resort fee” nor breathe second-hand smoke.
It looks I will be doing some traveling in January in an effort to bring you interesting news and posts.
The Complementary Spouse and I both got our credentials for the SHOT Show today as well as for Industry Day at the Range. It did come with a lot of legal language and waivers of responsibility as you might well imagine. I had booked our hotel reservations back in June. I still need to book our flights.
Yesterday, I also applied to the Safari Club International on behalf of both of us for media credentials for the SCI Convention which will start a day later than the SHOT Show and go on to Saturday. Keep your fingers crossed that we get approved.
Finally, I booked my room and flight today for the Dallas Safari Club Convention which is being held January 6th through 9th. As soon as they open registration for media I will be applying. I did speak with the person who has coordinated it in the past yesterday and gave her my information.
I have a couple of goals in attending both the SCI and the DSC conventions. First, they are different and I want to be able to provide a comparison between the two. Second, as I am intending to take my first hunting safari to Africa in 2023, I want to be able to give the perspective of the first time attendee as he or she goes about planning that trip of a lifetime. As my friends David Cole and Michael Bane have said, once you’ve been to Africa it gets in your blood and you have to go back.
I don’t think Big Pharma nor Dr. Fauci have come up with a vaccination for that. Thank god!
The Safari Club was supposed to have their 50th annual convention in Las Vegas in January of this year. However, with Nevada shutting down and virtually every major convention canceled, it got postponed to 2022. As I noted back in February, both the SHOT Show and the SCI Convention will be held the same week in Las Vegas. So on one end of Las Vegas Boulevard you will have the SHOT Show in the Sands Expo Center and on the other end you will have the Safari Club Convention at the Mandalay Bay.
I have attended a number of SHOT Shows now as media but I have never attended a hunting convention like the Safari Club Convention. As my goal is to go to Africa on a hunting safari in 2023, I think it is way past time to do it. I applied today for media credentials for the Safari Club convention and, fingers crossed, it will be approved.
One of the things that makes hunting conventions like that of SCI different is that they hold banquets with entertainment and auctions every night of the convention. These are meant to raise money to support wildlife conservation here and abroad. As such, they are not exactly cheap to attend nor are they meant to be. The cost to attend all four banquets is $450. That said, they do have some big hitters from the entertainment, political, and hunting world.
From a release I received at the end of September on the banquets.
Blue Collar Comedy legend Larry the Cable Guy will kick things off at SCI’s grand opening dinner and auction on Wednesday night. The multi-platinum-selling and award-winning artist is one of the top comedians in the country. He’s starred in films like Delta Farce, the Cars franchise, and numerous stand-up specials. Laugh out loud with Larry the Cable Guy at the Mandalay Bay Ballroom on Wednesday, Jan. 19, 2022, from 6:15 pm – 9:30 pm.
Thursday evening is the Night of the Hunter Awards and will be hosted by professional hunter and TV host Jim Shockey and writer and outdoorsman J. Alain Smith. At the Night of the Hunter Awards, SCI honors the individuals and organizations dedicated to conservation. SCI will recognize its achievements during a banquet and auction at the Mandalay Bay Ballroom on Thursday, Jan. 20, 2022, from 6:15 pm – 9:00 pm.
Friday night’s dinner and auction will be packed full of some of the greatest defenders of American freedom. These include retired Navy SEAL and Medal of Honor recipient Master Chief Petty Officer Edward Byers and political leader, businessman and avid outdoorsman Donald Trump, Jr. The event will be held at the Mandalay Bay Ballroom on Friday, Jan. 21, 2022, from 6:15 pm – 10:00 pm.
Country music star Craig Morgan, with such hits as “Redneck Yacht Club” and “That’s What I Love About Sunday,” will start off Saturday evening’s entertainment. The grand finale event features television host and conservative political commentator Tucker Carlson, of Tucker Carlson Tonight and Crossfire. Tucker will close out the convention celebrating SCI’s 50 years of freedom at the Mandalay Bay Ballroom on Saturday, Jan. 22, 2022, from 6:15 pm – 9:30 pm.
However, what really interests me will be the exhibits and the chance to actually meet PHs from various African countries to discuss a possible trip. I understand there will be a number of seminars as well.
Being that we are gluttons for punishment, the Complementary Spouse and I are going to try and cover both the SHOT Show and the Safari Club International Convention. We have our room booked and need to book our flights. To top this off, I am probably going to go to Dallas little more than a week earlier to attend the Dallas Safari Club Convention. I understand that they are much different and I want to experience the difference.
You can accuse me of being a Fudd but really I am rediscovering some of my earlier interest in hunting from my late teens and early 20s. I really consider myself Gun Culture v1.5. Besides, I really did go a paper in college for Non-Western Civilization on Robert Ruark’s Something of Value.
I received a press release announcing the 2022 Safari Club Convention has opened registration. It is to be held in Las Vegas on January 19th to the 22nd at the Mandalay Bay. Those dates got me to thinking about what else just might be happening at that same time.
So this means both the Safari Club Convention and the SHOT Show will be in Las Vegas the same week. I really think this is great because it would be one airfare and one hotel instead of two. I certainly plan to go as things stand now.
I’m sure I’d be exhausted trying to do both but what wonderful exhaustion it would be!
The NSSF sent out an email within the last two hours announcing that the 2021 SHOT Show had been canceled. You just knew that it was bound to happen no matter what was being said.
Frankly, I think they did the smart thing. It would have been interesting to hear the conversations regarding the election and Remington but those really don’t require going to Las Vegas.
From NSSF:
Statement from NSSF President & CEO Joe Bartozzi:
Due to the recent rise in COVID-19 cases throughout the world, NSSF, the firearm industry trade association, today makes the difficult announcement that the 2021 SHOT Show has been cancelled.
NSSF has remained in constant communication with Nevada officials throughout the year in our planning for the 2021 show. While there has been a concerted effort to expand the allowable levels for large gatherings by the county and state, with positivity rates peaking during our key planning period we have made the difficult decision to cancel the 2021 show. Sadly, these spikes are currently transpiring worldwide. Given the sheer complexities, diminishing timeline and immense logistical planning required to conduct a trade show as large as SHOT, NSSF simply could not move forward at this point with so many unknowns and variables. We truly appreciate the guidance of Nevada and Las Vegas officials in allowing us to communicate this news to our exhibitors and attendees well in advance of the show. We would also like to thank the Sands directly for their help and efforts to navigate this unprecedented situation.
The planning and work that has gone into the 2021 SHOT Show has been nothing short of remarkable. Since the pandemic began in early 2020, the NSSF staff and our show partners have been working around the clock to plan our largest show in history while keeping the health and safety of all involved as paramount.
The support of our show exhibitors this year has also been nothing short of remarkable. With three months to go until the show, floor space for both the Sands Expo Center and our expansion to the new Caesars Forum was nearly sold out, with more companies than ever before represented at the SHOT Show.
All of this positions us for a 2022 SHOT Show that will be undoubtedly the best in our industry’s history, and we look forward to bringing our entire community together again at a show that will be one to remember.
During the coming year, NSSF asks for our industry’s unwavering support as we continue our fight to promote, protect and preserve our industry in these unsettling times.
Throughout this year, NSSF has remained at the forefront for our industry. As thousands of businesses across the country were shuttered as being “non-essential” during the pandemic, NSSF worked nonstop to have firearm retailers, ranges, manufacturers and distributors listed as “essential” which allowed them to remain open for business.
NSSF is your trade association. Everything we do—from education, safety initiatives, compliance and security resources, import/export guidance, consumer activation initiatives, government relations, and the SHOT Show—is aimed at helping businesses in our industry succeed. Now, more than ever, we need your continued support.
by 
