Gun Nuts Media

One of the big benefits to going to the NRA Annual meetings is that you get to see and interact with people that you only otherwise see a couple of times each year, or in some cases meet people that you’ve only talked to online.  And then, you also get to talk to the all-stars of the shooting sports.  I already posted the picture of me being dwarfed by Rob Leatham, however I got to meet a lot of other great people as well.

Probably one of my favorites, here I’m with Dave Sevigny and Randi Rogers from Team Glock.  They’ll be appearing on the next episode of Gun Nuts Radio, which airs live on May 25th – during Bianchi Cup!  They’ll be talking about defending their Production division titles at that match, so don’t miss that show.

I also got to meet Angus Hobdell of CZ – I’d never met Angus before, but you can be sure that we’re going to get him on the show for an upcoming episode.  In addition to being a champion shooter, Angus is a true collector and lover of firearms, and has some great stories about acquisitions that he has made over the years.

Some people that I didn’t get to get photos with, I finally met Adam Ballard from DPMS who has been great in working with me to get a rifle for the upcoming Gun Nuts/HAVA Charity auction, I met Tom Taylor of Mossberg (more on that later), and generally just had a great time.

Another fun conversation was getting to finally meet face to face Jason Huss, one of the founding fathers of the Zoot Shooters.  Jason was at the Kahr/Auto Ordnance booth helping promote Zoot Shooting and talking about the racks upon racks of Thompson clones that they have available, from a 13 pound rifle with a 100 round drum to a more “legit” SBR version.

Also on the floor were Max Michel of Team Sig, who was demonstrating shooting techniques and tips to an eager crowd (imagine going to a golf convention and Tiger Woods is helping you with your swing), Todd Jarrett (I didn’t any decent pictures of Todd), and of course back at the Glock booth the Gunny was holding court with his loyal fans who formed a line that stretched around Glock’s booth.

And that’s just on the show floor, Chuck Norris, Sarah Palin, Glenn Beck, along with many other celebrity and media types were at the show meeting people, giving speeches, signing books, and generally just being awesome.

If you’re an NRA Member, you absolutely need to get to the show at least once.  It’s a great experience, and something that’s not to be missed.  The 2011 show is going to be held in Pittsburgh, and 2012 will be in St. Louis.  There is also a rumor (just a rumor right now) that NRA will be bringing the Annual Meetings to my city of Indianapolis!

In a theme repeated over and over again this past weekend, I’m reminded why as pro-gun people we have been successful in preserving our right to keep and bear arms.

From NRA 2010

That’s why. And also this: a young man under the supervision of his parents (whom I cropped out of the photo, sorry) handling a firearm with a wide eyed look of fascination…but also doing it SAFELY.

Meanwhile, the anti-gun forces could barely muster a dozen people for a half-hearted protest which was greeted by the surrounding NRA members with politeness and courtesy.  Of course, we all know that gun owners tend to be good folk, but it’s nice to see those lessons reinforced in a public setting.

If you combined all the members of all the gun control groups in the US and they had a convention, do you think it would bring 80,000 people and $20 million dollars to the local economy?

Do you see the people that are actively crusading for more restrictions on the right to keep and bear arms gathering together in public with the lawyers and activists that suppor their cause at the national level?  Because at the Breda/BlogMeet, Alan Gura was there – not to lecture us or demand more money to support lobbying (are you listening, Paul?) but just to hang out.

That’s why we win.  We win not just because we are right and justified, but because we’re actually real people.  We’re librarians, accountants, insurance agents, guys who drive big trucks, guys who drive luxury cars, women, veterans, jokers, parents, and everything else under the sun.

We win because gun owners are America.

Lots of pictures taken today, many of which will get posts of their own.  Here are some good ones that maybe don’t get their own post  but are fun nonetheless.

We saw this on the road to the convention center this morning.  I honestly have no idea what to make of it, but I would love to hear the story about how that kid ended up in the back of that pickup truck, on the FREEWAY with that guitar.  Although I’d imagine that my imagination is probably better than the actual story behind the photo.

They say that imitation is the most sincere form of flattery, right?  The background for this picture, taken at ParaUSA’s booth was just too good to pass up.  The gun I’ve got is one half of Para’s 2-gun “1911-2011” Centennial series, which will actually get it’s own post later on.

Probably the funniest picture though was the one with Rob Leatham…for obvious reasons. He is much,  much taller than I am.

All in all though I had a good day at the show.  I managed to jam almost two days worth of work in to a single day, and got a lot of great pictures and made some excellent contacts.

In fact, we’re going to have a huge announcement forthcoming about the HAVA Charity Auction in the next couple of weeks – a lot of good things are happening on that front, and it’s going to be bigger and better than I thought!

Also, I have to give mad props to Danielle from NRA (who blogs at the awesome NRA Blog) – she was great fun to talk to as always!

After a rather sporty drive down to the NRA Annual Meetings yesterday, we’re finally rolling out to the actual show flow – the doors opened 15 minutes ago and we’ll be there shortly.  First stop: the press room to pick up passes, then on to the actual convention floor.  Lots of pictures to take and info to grab!  I’ll be updating the Gun Nuts Facebook page regularly with pics and posts, which will also automatically update the Gun Nuts Twitter.  Looking forward to this show!  There are a lot of people here that I haven’t seen for a while, and a lot of people I’ve met via online interaction that I’ll get to meet face to face for the first time.