by Dan Shea
“Scary” military-type weapons had been banned from the SHOT Show for most of its existence. After many years of lobbying the promoters of the SHOT Show, a special Law Enforcement section was created. In the past five or six years, this has turned into one of the hottest parts of the show. This should show the tremendous interest that military small arms have for the firearms community. SHOT is simply the largest show of its kind in the world, and the estimate is that sixty percent of the firearms-related business is placed or planned during this show. There is nothing else like it. SAR has been displaying since the beginning of the LE section, and we have found this to be a great place to meet with our readers, our contributors, our advertisers, and the small arms community in general. If you added about five other shows in the US, you would have a pretty good spectrum of the small arms builders, designers, and end users.
Those who know me are aware I am a cheerleader for attending these types of shows. If you want to be part of the firearms world, you have to go where those with a like mind are. This issue of SAR is being handed out at the SHOT Show here in Las Vegas, as usual. We tried for an eclectic mix of articles to give a representative example of exactly “what” the Small Arms Review is about. We wanted you to know what we cover. We wanted you first-time readers to get a feel for the depth and breadth of the articles we bring each month. If you need to know more, go to our website at www.smallarmsreview.com and you can see the table of contents for each issue, or search our articles listing for the last seventy-seven issues.
Shows I consider a must in the United States are the SHOT Show, NDIA Small Arms Symposium, AUSA, Modern Day Marine, Knob Creek, and of course, the Small Arms Review show in Phoenix in December. There are many more that cover diverse interests, and you can refine your attendance accordingly. This list does not include the machine gun shoots out there, just the shows. Overseas, there is IWA in Germany, and the War and Peace Show at the Beltring in the UK. Again, many more come to mind for more focused interests. There are various requirements for getting into these shows, and if you are resourceful you will find the qualifications lists. Both Knob Creek and SAR are simply a matter of getting there and paying the gate fee for entrance. I look forward to seeing many friends at these gatherings, and doing lots of business as well.
In other news this month, I wanted to make you aware that Moose Lake Publishing LLC, publishers of Small Arms Review, will be moving to Henderson, Nevada as of the first of May, 2004. Debbie and I moved our other companies there in 2002, and a decision was made due to some personnel leaving in Maine, that it would be more expeditious to operate out of Nevada. There will be no interruption in receiving your issues, and in the next issue of SAR we will give all the new contact information. We hope this move is better for all, and you can bet it will be easier to publish SAR in Southern Nevada weather than Maine in January.
– Dan
| This article first appeared in Small Arms Review V7N6 (March 2004) |
