Chairman's Message: Happy Ending

Who doesn’t love a happy ending? Don’t be quick to assume where I’m going with this topic! From the time we were children listening to fairy tales, to now as adults, watching our favorite movies or sporting events, we long for the happy ending where the hero wins out over evil, the knight slays the dragon, the lost souls are found or our team wins the game. I’m starting to get that feeling about our industry right now.

We had an incredibly long run in our most recent hyper market that brought huge profits and daily high-fives. But historically, the bear market following these profitable runs lasts just as long. Given that the initial peak of our most recent hyper market started with a run on ammunition in March of 2020, and continued with strong sales in some categories into early 2022, we should soon be seeing an end to this long-running lull.

Given this, I wasn’t sure what the tone would be in meetings at the NASGW Expo last week. But I was pleasantly surprised to find that most vendor meetings were positive.  

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The National Association of Sporting Goods Wholesalers (NASGW), the association representing shooting sports wholesalers, manufacturers, and their trade partners, announced last week, at the annual NASGW Expo, donations to six shooting sports industry organizations, including The National Shooting Sports Foundation (NSSF), Congressional Sportsmen's Foundation (CSF), Walk The Talk America (WTTA), the Youth Shooting Sports Alliance (YSSA), the American Suppressor Association (ASA), and The Second Amendment Foundation (SAF). 

"In this industry it is important that you stand with strong partners," said Kenyon Gleason, NASGW President. "NASGW, our members, and this industry rely on these organizations to advocate for us now and for the future. We are proud to support these organizations in the amount of $25,000 each, to help them do great work for our industry."

NASGW Announces 2023 Award Winners at the NASGW Expo in Columbus, OH

The National Association of Sporting Goods Wholesalers (NASGW), the association representing shooting sports wholesalers, manufacturers, and their trade partners, announced the winners of their annual Appreciation and Caliber Awards during their Appreciation Dinner at the NASGW Expo, in Columbus, OH. 

After a blown transformer knocked out power around the downtown Columbus area around 1pm on Tuesday, there was some uncertainty surrounding the dinner and awards ceremony. Despite the challenges the show went off as expected.

"What a fun night in Columbus at the Annual Appreciation Dinner, despite the power outage earlier in the day" said Kenyon Gleason, NASGW President. "When the power went down after lunch we weren't sure what to expect, but everything worked out and it was a great night."

The 2023 NASGW Expo & Annual Meeting — held in Columbus, Ohio, Oct. 25–27 — started out with a bang, literally.

A local transformer blew early Tuesday afternoon, the eve of the show, which knocked out power to the Greater Columbus Convention Center and adjacent hotels for several hours. Pivoting quickly, the NASGW team shut down the exhibit hall and registration as exhibitors were in the midst of setting up their booths and swiftly communicated this decision and subsequent updates to attendees via email.

Fortunately, the delay caused by the outage did little to derail what was a robust showing on behalf of the industry at the Expo. When the doors opened at 12:00 p.m. Wednesday, it was quickly “business as usual,” with attendees and exhibitors engaged in business dealings.

Written & Published By The Outdoor Wire 

The NASGW Expo is a relatively small show, as far as venue footprints go, making it an easy show to maneuver through. It is also a quiet show, especially compared to SHOT Show or even the NRA Show, where attendees are counted in the tens of thousands.

While NASGW is indeed a small show, it is an outsized show in terms of sheer buying power. NASGW is the association for the wholesale distributors in the firearm and ammunition industry. These are the companies that can, and sometimes do, buy firearms by the container load, and then warehouse that inventory to supply retailers around the country (i.e. two-step distribution).

It’s a very important show. Considering the last time I attended an NASGW Expo was something like 20 years ago, I was a bit behind the curve on just how important a show this is.

SCOPE Q3 Report Now Available

The 2023 Q3 SCOPE Report is now available. The Overview Report is included in your NASGW membership and can be downloaded by just clicking the button below. The enhanced Detail Report goes deeper and provides an additional level of information for those looking to understand regional distribution and product segmentation. The Detail Report is available at no cost for current SCOPE subscribers, by logging into your SCOPE portal, and available for purchase by NASGW members who are not currently subscribed to SCOPE. The Detail Report will also be included when scheduling a demo with the SCOPE team.

SCOPE Annual Update

For those of you who missed the Annual SCOPE Update at the NASGW Expo, we invite you to download the presentation which includes Tom Hopper's market analysis and some updates for the SCOPE Platform. If you are looking to incorporate data into your business or just want to better understand how data could help, we encourage you to schedule a demo to explore what opportunities are available to you as an NASGW member. 

Firearms Shipments

Ammunition Shipments

Optics Shipments

The October 2023 NSSF-adjusted National Instant Criminal Background Check System (NICS) figure of 1,370,719 is an increase of 8.3 percent compared to the October 2022 NSSF-adjusted NICS figure of 1,265,311. For comparison, the unadjusted October 2023 FBI NICS figure 2,194,313 reflects a 11.4 percent decrease from the unadjusted FBI NICS figure of 2,475,869 in October 2022.

October 2023 is the third-highest October on record and marks the 51st month in a row that has exceeded 1 million adjusted background checks in a single month.

Please note: Twenty-four states currently have at least one qualified alternative permit, which under the Brady Act allows the permit-holder, who has undergone a background check to obtain the permit, to purchase a firearm from a licensed dealer without a separate additional background check for that transfer. The number of NICS checks in these states does not include these legal transfers based on qualifying permits and NSSF does not adjust for these transfers.

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• Israel's Arming Citizens with 10,000 Rifles
• Court Strikes NY Gun Licensing Law
• US Productivity Jumps 4.7% in Q3

UPCOMING EVENTS

January 23-26, 2024

SHOT Show

Las Vegas, NV

January 30 - February 1, 2024

NAW Executive Summit

Washington D.C.

February 3-11, 2024

NRA Great American Outdoor Show

Harrisburg, PA

May 17-19, 2024

NRA Annual Meetings & Exhibits

Dallas, TX

October  15-18, 2024

NASGW Expo

Kansas City, MO