BY STEVE SANETTI, NSSF PRESIDENT AND CEO
significant number of states to actively input required records into the National Instant Background Check System, which indicates individuals who are prohibited from purchasing firearms under current law. Amazingly, until our efforts, some states had utterly neglected to follow the law, which results in incomplete background checks. And we’ve actively worked with the Veterans Administration to furnish firearms safety kits to returning veterans, many of whom are gun owners and desire the means to safely store their firearms away from unauthorized hands.
PROMOTING OUR SPORTS When the ATF proposed a policy that would remove the long-standing “sporting purposes” exemption of certain types of 5.56mm ammunition, the NSSF worked with other concerned groups and educated consumers, politicians, regulators, and the media concerning the legitimate use of such ammunition in target shooting. More than 310,000 comments were received by the ATF as a result, and these efforts contributed to ATF’s rescinding its proposed regulation—for now. The NSSF recognizes the importance of working with, learning from, and educating its retail and range members on a wide variety of issues of common interest. Many of the articles appearing in SHOT Business throughout the year describe the enhanced services we have attempted
to provide so that new customers feel welcome and valued in retail stores and shooting ranges. Our First Shots Big City Tours got a lot of new participants to these stores and ranges, hopefully starting them on the road to becoming lifelong participants in the shooting sports.
SHOW TIME The SHOT Show again was a great success, in part attributed to our Exhibitor Academy, in which trade show professionals from many disciplines helped both first-time and veteran exhibitors learn how to get the most from their SHOT Show experience. We also won two Telly communications awards for our 2015 SHOT Show promotional video and our online Gun Crimes Plummet as Gun Sales Rise infographic (at right). Our Industry Summit’s theme was Diversity in the Shooting Sports, and it was extremely gratifying to see the industry recognize and embrace the need to attract and retain new participants, who come from all the many different backgrounds and age groups that typify 21st-century America, in the recreational shooting sports. They are coming to us in droves! Further helping us in this effort is Samantha Pedder, who came on board as manager of outreach and diversity, a position for which she is eminently well qualified. Our efforts to assist the industry with research data to drive its decisions have never been more intense,
culminating in our Hispanic Market and 2014 Economic Impact of the Firearms Industry reports. They indicate a thriving economic enterprise that has successfully withstood the economic downturn of recent years and has contributed much to our economy, provided thousands of good jobs, and, via excise taxes on firearms and ammunition, has been the single greatest source of conservation funds in the nation.
THE BIG PICTURE The NSSF has been officially recognized as an official UN Non-Governmental Organization for the purposes of providing industry input into the many international firearms protocols being considered by UN agencies. These protocols bear careful watching, and could easily have a significant adverse effect upon the legitimate international commerce in commercial firearms as various disarmament agencies attempt to stem the illicit trader in military small arms in conflict zones in developing nations. These and many other efforts by our hardworking staff, to give you an industry trade association you can be proud of, resulted in our membership soaring from 4,300 in 2008 to more than 13,000 today. We hope we are giving you the kinds of services you value, and we welcome your input. Upcoming 2016 will be a year that will test our industry and our resolve in many ways. Working together to face these challenges, I know we will continue to succeed! DECEMBER 2015 ❚ SHOT BUSINESS ❚ 13