Bitter – Page 31 – Shall Not Be Questioned

NRA’s Sportsman’s Show “Way Over Reed’s Head”

“This is way over Reed’s head.” – Woman who worked with Reed to put on the Eastern Sports Outdoor Show & now works with NRA to put on the Great American Outdoor Show

Reading this article that talked to vendors from gun shops, fishing lure retailers, boat dealers, hunting outfitters, and more, the overwhelming response appears to be that NRA knows how to put on a bigger, better sportsman’s show than what Reed put on previously.

I find it interesting the vendors who attend other shows said this is one of the best they have attended, and NRA plans to release exact numbers on how many people attended which is something that Reed was never willing to do. Perhaps the end of the old show will really end up being better for everyone in the community.

Good News for Hunting & Ultimately Guns

I realize that most readers of this blog aren’t hunters. But, if you’re like Sebastian, you may have been invited to go hunting once or twice, but couldn’t give it a try alongside the experienced hunter who invited you because you didn’t pre-plan and sit through an 8+ hour hunter safety course in order to get a license.

Pennsylvania was an early adopter of an apprentice hunting program that allowed experienced hunters to take children out to the woods on a limited license that didn’t require the pre-planning hassle of finding an available hunter ed class. It was wonderful, but it didn’t solve the problem for those who were over 18 and would like to give hunting a try. Recently, the legislature and the Game Commission have set out to fix that problem, and final approval to new regulations is scheduled for April.

It’s great to see some roadblocks to growing the sport coming down, especially when you add in that the Game Commission has been rolling out online hunter ed with only a few hours to do in an actual classroom.

Stories like this don’t just make me think about great news for hunting, but they should get all gun people thinking about barriers to entry for any of their favorite shooting sports and what they can do to help knock them down.

Anti-Gun Advocate Arrested for Gun Felonies

An outspoken New York advocate for gun control laws that made it a felony to possess a firearm on school property (instead of the misdemeanor it was prior to the SAFE Act) decided to carry his gun to an elementary school this week. It ended with him walking out in handcuffs and facing two counts of criminal possession of a weapon that may carry up to four years in prison thanks the law he so publicly supported. Oops.

More Magazine Circulation News

I’ve covered the positive news about gun magazines here before, but this is quite a shocker. American Rifleman is now in the top 25 of publications in the US, and it knocked Maxim out of the list of top magazines.

Bearing Arms

Last fall, the National Constitution Center proposed an idea to repeal the Second Amendment and replace it with a version that assures “public safety departments” could use firearms in the course of their job. They took a beating in the associated poll.

It seems they just might have learned a little something from just how off base they were from mainstream thinking because now they are running a blog post reporting on the issue of bearing arms, as opposed to simply keeping arms. The post really focuses on reporting the issue rather than calling for more drastic restrictions as they did before, but that may only be due to the fact that they have Lyle Denniston from SCOTUSblog contributing on the topic.

Firearms Shopping on a Budget

Exurban Kevin writes that he wanted to do a blog post about inexpensive guns for carry. Unfortunately, none of the online retailers will allow price sensitive customers to sort by price.

It’s interesting to think about that problem since the vast majority of retail websites, even for other major items that you will use every day, typically have a sort by price feature. Is the industry potentially losing sales by people who are price sensitive, but also may not have the time to learn everything they can about all possible pros and cons of the guns in their price range. Can they even easily figure out what models are in their price range without a trip to every gun store in half a day’s drive?

Local Improvements in Gun Laws

Firearms attorney Josh Prince recently sued Erie, PA when they enforced a local ordinance banning guns on some of their town property in violation of the state’s preemption law. While it may seem like a small effort for gun rights, it did apparently scare the leaders of a town 432 miles away into not only stopping a march toward banning guns on government property, but also repealing old laws in violation from the books. (h/t to Josh Prince)

Supporting the NRA Takeover of Harrisburg

Okay, so maybe the NRA hasn’t actually taking over Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, but they did take over the sportsman’s show in Harrisburg after the last producers banned semi-automatic rifles.

This article features reporters who talked to attendees, and the response to NRA’s involvement appears to be overwhelmingly positive. One man said, “I’m happy the NRA took over,” even though one of the top things he was looking for at the shows included ATV displays. Another attendee told reporters that since NRA took over the show, it appears more organized and functional for consumers to get around the facility.

Looking at their photos, several of the aisles look nearly as packed as the busiest weekend days of the NRA annual meetings. That’s impressive. I hope that the rough winter weather doesn’t impact attendance too much. Hopefully, word will continue to get out that it’s a great event under new management and numbers will continue to climb.

Anti-Gun, Not Anti-Violence

An anti-gun activist was convicted of domestic violence and is currently serving jail time. It’s news because he’s also an anti-gun lawmaker still serving in the legislature from his jail cell.

Media Fails; Blames NRA

When I first noticed the “welcome” piece from the Indianapolis Star I didn’t comment on the bits where the author implied that NRA & the convention bureau were trying to keep the convention a secret, claiming that “the NRA was uncharacteristically low-key about its plans” and that tourism officials were “not touting one of the largest convention itâ€™s bagged in years.” I just thought it was part of his hit piece.

It turned out that this seems to be a common view in the Indy media based on this article. They say that NRA is blaming a miscommunication, but they still imply that NRA was trying to hide their location.

It’s as if local reporters are looking to bash NRA for their own failures. Just in a quick search, we’ve been talking about Indianapolis as a known location since early 2012. It hasn’t been a secret. No one has been hiding anything, nor has NRA been particularly low-key. They usually don’t start advertising until the year of the event. This year, it’s a little more complex since a good portion of the people in driving distance are also in driving distance of the Harrisburg sportsman’s show, one of the largest shows in the country, that starts this weekend. They have to balance out advertising for each event, which historically hasn’t been an issue. Regardless, the fact that Indy is hosting the convention has not been some big secret, contrary to their assertions.

It’s as if the media is so desperate to attack NRA that they are now reaching make up new controversies that really comes down to a situation where journalists are just too lazy to use Google.