2018 has come to an end and with it my term as your NASGW Chairman. It has been an honor to serve this great organization.  We have a fantastic board and truly dedicated team at NASGW. I want to congratulate Laurie Aronson who will be taking the lead as Chairwoman in 2019. She is the perfect person for the job and her experience in the industry will be a tremendous asset leading NASGW forward.  I would also like to commend Laurie on making history at NASGW. She will be the first woman to lead our association.

Thanksgiving is now behind us and Hanukkah, Christmas and New Years are on the horizon.  I hope you all took the opportunity to spend some time with family and friends over Thanksgiving and are making plans for memorable holidays this year.  I love this time of year but it just seems to fly by too quickly.  In the flurry of fall business and planning for the coming year, be sure to take some time to reflect on the blessings of the past year and the opportunities that lay ahead for 2019.

Wow, what a week! If your time in Pittsburgh was anything like mine, it was full speed then over in a flash. So much time is spent planning and preparing for a week of meetings that it really seems to go by almost too fast. Regardless, our time spent in Pittsburgh propels us into 2019. I want to personally thank each and every one of you who attended the NASGW Expo. I hope you had a productive week. Between the NASGW staff and I, we heard numerous great comments and reports about Range Day, the Awards Dinner, and the Expo venue. Our team at NASGW couldn’t be happier. And, congratulations to all the Leadership and Caliber Award Winners for being recognized by your peers and the industry. I think next year will be fantastic venue and I’m looking forward to see you all there. Mark your calendars for October 22-25 and plan to join us in sunny Orlando, Florida.

Can you believe it is time for the NASGW Expo? Seem like just yesterday we were in San Antonio. In a couple of weeks, we will be once again meeting to discuss the victories and defeats of 2018 and working to make 2019 as successful as possible. For me, this is one of my favorite weeks of the year, and I look forward to seeing lots of familiar faces, hearing about new products, planning out the upcoming year, and strengthening relationships across the industry. The NASGW Expo is the best opportunity each year to work together with our industry partners to chart the course forward and make our industry better.

As August winds down and we move into September there are some big changes on the horizon; kids are going back to school, football season is kicking off, temperatures start to cool and hunting seasons are right around the corner.  I always look forward to this time of year as the fall business cycle swings into gear with dealers stocking up and consumers gearing up for fall.  Of course, the NASGW Expo is only a few weeks away as well and the NASGW team is busy putting together the final details for the Expo.  I’m sure your calendars are already filling up for meetings at the Expo but there are a few things we don’t want you to forget about.

Wow, the end of July. Can you believe it? The “dog days of summer” are upon us and in Texas, that means hot temperatures, which we’ve had no shortage of in recent weeks. The other day as I was driving back to Waco on another triple-digit day with the AC blasting I passed a billboard that said: “Opportunity Awaits.” It probably said more but that was the part that caught my eye. My immediate thought was an opportunity for a cold front, or even rain would be welcomed right now, but something about that billboard stuck in my head. What opportunity were they referring to and what were they advertising? How would I know when I encounter “the opportunity?” Regardless of what this billboard was selling, it was definitely thought-provoking. 

Technology has rapidly changed our world over the past 20 years and online retail has been a significant and driving factor in that. Sales tax regulations have long been constrained to taxing sales of goods from companies with a physical presence within the taxing state.  The resulting dynamic, where consumers are able to avoid sales tax by purchasing goods from out-of-state online vendors, has been a boom for online retailing and a handicap for traditional retail in many areas.

I hope you all had a great Memorial Day and got out to enjoy the unofficial kickoff to summer. I also hope you took a moment to reflect on the real meaning of this holiday. The BBQs and sunburns are great, but we wouldn't be able to enjoy them without the sacrifice of many.

This week marks another important week in the Shooting Sports Industry, the 2018 NRA Annual Meetings & Exhibit in Dallas, Texas. This show is a bit different from the other big events like Shot Show and NASGW’s Expo, as it is a consumer show. It is still a great opportunity to connect with others within the industry and talk about what is going on with each of our businesses. These relationships that we have all formed are what makes our industry so strong, and we appreciate organizations like the NRA, NSSF, and NASGW that bring us together as well as fight for our way of life.

It isn’t just the 2^nd Amendment under assault in our nation today.Throughout history the elimination of individual rights is almost always preceded by limitations to free speech and debate. We talk often about the importance of the 2^nd amendment but all freedoms equally hang on the 1^st amendment.

The anti-gun movement, emboldened by some recent success, seems reinvigorated in pushing corporations to discriminate against younger customers and now to limit speech and content. This is a dangerous tactic in that they seek to limit our ability to communicate and educate people on the misinformation they are spreading. Websites like YouTube and Facebook have now taken measures to restrict content, pages, and channels that focus on firearms. This is a significant challenge to our industry and our ability to educate the public about a lot of very important topics, which include firearms safety.