SHOT Show 2024: Eighteen Acres of Guns, Ammunition, and Happiness

Me with Daniel Defense's Jim Ross at SHOT Show (AWR Hawkins/Breitbart News)
AWR Hawkins/Breitbart News

The National Shooting Sports Foundation’s SHOT Show 2024 wrapped up Friday, ending a week of exciting new product launches that included numerous new pistols, rifles, and shotguns, as well as optics and firearm accessories.

For those who may not know, the “SHOT” in SHOT Show stands for Shooting, Hunting, and Outdoor Trade. It is Las Vegas’s third largest show, showcasing 18 acres of firearms and firearm accessories and encompassing floor after floor of merchandise displayed in the Venetian Expo and Caesars Forum.

WATCH — Arkansas is Gun Country: AWR Hawkins w/ Gov. Sarah Sanders at SHOT SHOW:

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The SHOT Show is designed to give sports, hunting, and law enforcement retailers, wholesalers, and distributors around the world the opportunity to come see what is new so they can place orders to stock their shelves and inventories in 2024.

SHOT Show 2024 marked the 13th time Breitbart News has attended the show, and as we spoke with attendees the consensus was this show was full of energy and vigor. Many first-time attendees expressed a feeling of being blown away by seeing, not simply how many new products would be available in 2024, but how vast the firearms industry is in general.

The SHOT Show gives retailers, wholesalers, and distributors the ability to actually meet the manufacturers, and in many cases, the company owners, to discuss specifics about new products, including products that are so new they may still be in promo status.

Me with Taran Tactical’s Taran Butler at SHOT Show (AWR Hawkins/Breitbart News)

Tuesday through Thursday alone, Breitbart News walked the floor and was able to spend time at Kahr, Glock, Hogue, Canik, Ruger, Olight, SureFire, Holosun, Winchester, Silencer Co., Stealth Arms, Daniel Defense, Pelican Cases, Watchtower Firearms, XS Sights, Springfield Armory, Taran Tactical Innovations, Henry Repeating Rifles, North American Arms, Palmetto State Armory, and others. We were able to listen to Gov. Joe Lombardo (R-NV) talk about his support of the Second Amendment in Nevada, Gov. Mark Gordon (R-WY) explain his pro-gun efforts in Wyoming, and Gov. Jim Pillen (R-NE) stress his support of allowing teachers to be armed in Nebraska.

We also heard from Govs. Brad Little (R-ID) and Greg Gianforte (R-MT), both of whom stand determined to defend the Second Amendment rights of the residents of their respective states.

Breitbart News interviewed Gov. Sarah Sanders (R-AR), who emphasized her focus on maintaining and expanding a business climate that makes Arkansas an attractive home for firearm and ammunition manufacturers.

Gun Owners of America and the NRA had booths at SHOT Show 2024, and the Second Amendment Foundation’s Alan Gottlieb was there for meetings and interaction with a number of attending media outlets, including Breitbart News.

The overarching takeaway from SHOT Show 2024 is that the Second Amendment is alive and well, and Americans seeking tools for self-defense, hunting, and law enforcement are better served than at any time in the nation’s history.

AWR Hawkins is an award-winning Second Amendment columnist for Breitbart News and the writer/curator of Down Range with AWR Hawkins, a weekly newsletter focused on all things Second Amendment, also for Breitbart News. He is the political analyst for Armed American Radio, a Turning Point USA Ambassador, and a Sightmark rifle optical pro-staffer. He was a Visiting Fellow at the Russell Kirk Center for Cultural Renewal in 2010, a speaker at the 2023 Western Conservative Summit, and he holds a Ph.D. in Military History, with a focus on the Vietnam War (brown water navy), U.S. Navy since Inception, the Civil War, and Early Modern Europe. Follow him on Instagram: @awr_hawkins. You can sign up to get Down Range at breitbart.com/downrange. Reach him directly at awrhawkins@breitbart.com.

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