This weekend (April 28-30), I attended the National Rifle Association’s (NRA) Annual Meeting in Atlanta. I went with my dad and brother, so we were guaranteed to have a good time! The meetings and exhibition were held at the Georgia World Congress Center, which is about the size of a small city. The exhibit hall covered 15 acres, which does not include all of the meeting rooms and auditoriums that were in use throughout the weekend. There was something for everyone in the shooting sports. If you were looking for information on gun laws, it was there. Like to hunt? There was a session for you. Want to put your hands on that brand new model you’ve seen in the magazines? It was there. Heck, even the President was there! The big draw for the Avery men was the exhibit hall, however. Imagine the biggest gun show you’ve ever seen. Now multiply it by 10 and you’re about there!
View of a tiny piece of the exhibit hall from above.
Panoramic view of the exhibit hall.
The amount of guns, accessories, knives, flashlights, clothes, and general cool stuff was just incredible. It was difficult at first to figure out how to go about trying to see it all. I must have handled 200 different guns through the course of the event, some more interesting than others. We visited all of the big guys, plus a whole bunch of smaller companies, some that I’d never heard of. I tried to visit all of the booths for the companies whose equipment I use, which was really cool since I was able to talk to upper management level folks in several cases. For example, I use a Comp-Tac holster and magazine pouches in competition. I walked into their display to discover that the founder of the company, Gregg Garrett, was not only working the floor, but had found a stool so that my dad could sit down for a few minutes. We talked with him for several minutes and had a very nice chat. I like their gear a lot and it turns out I like their founder pretty well, too! I also spoke with Randy Lee, president of Apex Tactical Specialties. I have their Competition Action Enhancement Kit in my M&P 9 Pro, which made it a different gun! I thanked him for making a great product and for the instructional videos that made installation possible for people like me. There is nothing more frightening than seeing the guts of your pistol laying on the bench! Randy’s videos made it much less scary.
I have been wanting to get my hands on Walther’s Q5 Match pistol and finally got to at the show. It is similar to the PPQ that I carry, but has a full five-inch barrel and even better trigger. If I was going to buy another gun for Production, I’d have to consider it. The ergonomics and trigger are top-notch. As a Smith and Wesson fan, I was pleased to see the M&P 2.0. They have improved the trigger significantly over the old factory trigger. The M&P is hard to beat. If I were itching to get into the Single-Stack game and money were no object, the Colt Gold Cup Match in .45 ACP would be my choice. I made the mistake of picking one up and trying the trigger. My knees got a little weak and I broke out in a cold sweat! It is a gorgeous gun and appears to do justice to the Colt name. The $1700 msrp price tag is not out of scale with other 1911s and I’m pretty sure that no further work would have to be done to it. Another good choice would be Remington’s yet to be released 1911 set up to the high standards set by pro shooter Travis Tomasie. While I was at Remington’s display, Tomasie and his team mate, Gabby Franco, walked up and started talking. You might remember Gabby from Season 4 of Top Shot. Both were very nice and extremely knowledgeable. I thought it was pretty cool to talk to a guy with his name on a gun! If punching paper is your sport and you want to look good doing it, the Sig P210 is an absolutely beautiful target pistol meant to put multiple projectiles into a single hole. The bore axis is extremely low and the grips are, well, perfect. At over $2000, they should be!
I can’t leave out the old guns and the new versions of old guns that were prevalent at the show. I have a soft-spot for the Single Action Armies and Winchester lever guns that I saw in use on my favorite Westerns. Cimarron Firearms and Uberti USA‘s reproductions of these classic arms are well made and nothing short of beautiful. There is something just wonderful about the fit of the SAA in the hand and the smoothness of pulling back the hammer and squeezing the trigger! I loved Cimarron’s 1876 Centennial Rifle, chambered in buffalo-stomping .50-95 caliber! Then there was Auto Ordnance’s reproduction of the 1927A1 Thompson submachine gun. The modern version is a semi-automatic in .45 ACP and appears to be very well made. It’s hard to not feel like a bad-ass when you hold a Thompson! I don’t know if they’re USPSA-legal, but I’d like to see a Pistol Caliber Carbine shooter bring a Thompson to a match! They’d win the cool points for sure.
All of the guns and gear were great, but the best part was the people, both the industry professionals and celebrities as well as the visitors like me. I met several professional shooters representing the cream of the crop in the shooting sports; the very ones you see on TV. I understand these folks are there to represent their sponsor’s brand, so they’re getting paid to be nice to all of us commoners. But not one of them gave me the impression they were anything but genuine. They all seemed to enjoy being there and spent way more time than it takes to get a photo and an autograph. I almost expected that, but was still very impressed to see it actually come to pass. It was just like talking to my friends at the range. I’ll admit a certain level of fan-boy came out in me, especially talking to Jerry Miculek and Julie Golob. But they were both very nice people and easy to talk to. There is a list of the folks I met at the bottom of this article with links to their websites. I hope you’ll check them out and consider their sponsors when you’re looking to buy your next toy.
Even with all of the stuff and celebrities to see, I most enjoyed the crowd. I haven’t heard any official attendance figures, but 80,000 were expected. I believe at least that many people were there. Normally, I hate crowds, but this one was different. It was simply a friendly crowd. We talked to several people during the course of the show, either at lunch, in line to see a celebrity, or just in passing. Rudeness is one of my pet peeves and will set me off pretty fast. I almost expect it in a crowd that size. That didn’t happen in three days of walking the show floor. The other aspect of the crowd I really enjoyed was the diversity. The leftist media wants you to think the NRA is made up of a bunch of angry, white, male, John Wayne-wannabe, rednecks. They’re wrong. I saw men, women, children, families, fathers with sons, fathers with daughters, mothers with their children, people across the age spectrum, and people with a wide array of ethnic backgrounds. All were there together and getting along just fine. That is what makes the NRA the strongest lobbying organization in this country. It does not appeal to any one group, but to everyone who believes the Founders got it right when they wrote the Constitution. If you’re forming your opinion about the NRA and its members based on what the mainstream media is telling you, then you’re just flat wrong.
If you have any questions about the NRA, or any other shooting or gun related issues, please feel free to contact me anytime. If I don’t know the answer, I’ll find it or find someone who does know. Thanks for reading, and as always, feel free to comment and share!
These are the folks I was privileged to meet at the meeting. Each is linked to a website where you can find out more about them.
Rob Leatham – A pro shooter with Springfield Armory. He is one of the people that has built the action shooting sports into what they are today.
Julie Golob – Veteran, mom, author, champion shooter, and very nice lady! Shoots for Smith and Wesson.
Jerry Miculek – The fastest man on Earth in terms of shooting. His You Tube channel is hours of entertainment. Shoots for Smith and Wesson.
Max Michel – Max is an incredible shooter for Sig. Also a very nice guy.
Lena Miculek – The daughter of two great shooters, she was destined to be great. And she is. Shoots for Sig.
Travis Tomasie – Travis is a veteran and incredibly talented. I got to talk with him for several minutes at Remington’s display, shooter to shooter. Very cool!
Gabby Franco – Gabby is a former Olympian and appeared on Top Shot. She’s a mom and a great shooter, and a very nice lady.
Colion Noir – Colion is a spokesperson for the NRA, doing excellent videos on gun rights issues and the shooting sports. I was very excited to meet him.
Eric Blandford – Eric is owner of the extremely popular You Tube channel, iraqveteran8888. The kind of guy with which you could drink a beer.
Chad Sims – Chad is also part of the iraqveteran8888 team. As nice as guy as his coworker!
Please take some time and check all these folks out. It’s worth it!