NSSF Blog

“From the Counter” is NSSF’s collection of timely industry perspectives from firearm retailers across the country. Our goal is to identify and highlight innovative market strategies to help retailers compete more successfully. This month I visited with an independent retailer in the Rocky Mountain West. I spoke with owner Rob Gallentine a year ago, and […]

The post From the Counter: Shedhorn Outfitters appeared first on NSSF.

In the wake of the criminal shooting in Aurora, Ill., state agencies are already identifying the gaps in the system that allowed a prohibited person to illegally obtain a firearm, despite going through multiple background checks. The Illinois State Police (ISP) acknowledge they missed a prohibiting felony record when they issued a Firearm Owner’s Identification […]

The post Illinois Tragedy Raises Serious Questions About Record Checks appeared first on NSSF.

At Target Shooting Solutions in Avondale, Pennsylvania, Director of Training Kris Stover says his sole goal is to consistently bring new shooters and people from the local community into the world of shooting. NSSF’s First Shots is one of the tools Stover uses to help achieve that goal, and he says the payoff is that […]

The post First Shots — Target Shooting Solutions Can Relax and Just Teach appeared first on NSSF.

The murders in Aurora, Illinois, reveal the inability or unwillingness of many in authority to ensure that our existing laws are working. The convicted felon who murdered five at his workplace last week should never have had a gun. We need to know why that happened so it can be fixed so it never happens […]

The post It’s Not About New Laws; It’s about Implementing the Ones We Have appeared first on NSSF.

Legislation Frees Funds for State Range Construction NEWTOWN, Conn. — The National Shooting Sports Foundation® (NSSF®), the firearms industry trade association, praised the introduction of H.R. 1222, the Target Practice and Marksmanship Training Support Act of 2019 in the U.S House of Representatives. The bipartisan bill was authored by Reps. Ron Kind (D-Wis.) and Rob […]

The post NSSF Praises U.S. House Bipartisan Target Practice and Marksmanship Training Support Act appeared first on NSSF.

The Democrats in control of the U.S. House of Representatives are moving quickly on a gun control bill, H.R. 8, the Bipartisan Background Checks Act of 2019. Predictably, they argue that this “common sense” legislation is long overdue. They’ll tell you that it must be passed for the safety of our children and that it […]

The post The State of Gun Politics in the U.S. House appeared first on NSSF.

NSSF is committed to helping our ranges stay OSHA- and EPA-compliant when handling the hazardous wastes that are naturally generated at their facilities. In doing so, we often join forces with professionals in the industry who work with lead and other firing range waste materials on a daily basis. One of those companies, and one […]

The post How to Classify and Handle Firing Range Waste appeared first on NSSF.

I recently discussed different methods to look at financing various business situations. Debt financing, while possibly difficult to obtain at times, is very easy to locate—there’s a bank on every corner. Equity financing, however, can be much more difficult to locate, especially for the small to medium-sized business owner. There are legendary tales of entrepreneurs […]

The post Equity Financing: Where for Art Thou? appeared first on NSSF.

NEWTOWN, Conn. — The National Shooting Sports Foundation® (NSSF®), the trade association for the firearms industry, is pleased to announce that Birchwood Casey has agreed to be the official target sponsor for the organization’s First Shots® program. Headquartered in Eden Prairie, Minnesota, Birchwood Casey is a leading manufacturer of firearms cleaning products, targets and other […]

The post Birchwood Casey Joins Official Supporters of NSSF’s First Shots Program appeared first on NSSF.

NEWTOWN, Conn. — The National Shooting Sports Foundation® (NSSF®), the trade association for the firearms industry, is pleased to announce the launch of its “My NSSF” Mobile App. “Smartphones and tablets have streamlined commerce and customer service for thousands of businesses. Providing such efficiency to our members through the new ‘My NSSF’ Mobile App is […]

The post NSSF Launches ‘My NSSF’ Mobile App appeared first on NSSF.

A “study” released at the end of last year predictably sparked headlines such as “US Leads the World in Child Gun Deaths.” Because this illustrates a familiar pattern, it deserves our attention still. We know fatal firearm accidents are down, and near historic lows. We know that there are drastic differences between firearm accidents involving […]

The post ‘Study’ Misled with the Data, But Made News appeared first on NSSF.

Welcome to NSSF’s column for firearms range owners, managers and staff. “Behind the Firing Line” works to recognize ranges that have met the stringent requirements necessary to achieve NSSF’s Five-Star rating for excellence and explain how they met specific criteria within the Star-Rating Range Program so that other ranges working to make the grade can […]

The post Behind the Firing Line: RTSP Randolph appeared first on NSSF.

The letter P seems to be a recurring one in business literature. We hear about the “Four Ps” of marketing, the “Seven Ps” of sales and the “Five Ps” of business. Today I’m going to talk about Ps, six of them, and how they relate to planning, specifically, how proper previous planning prevents poor performance […]

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The American Dream is alive and well. I have long felt this is the case. So, I was heartened to see support for a point of view that you will not generally see reflected in most of the daily news coverage. It comes in the form of an American Enterprise Institute national public opinion survey […]

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Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) has made no secret about her desire for more gun restrictions. She has prepared an a la carte menu of ideas from universal background checks to bans on “assault weapons” and standard capacity magazines to ending sales to those between the ages of 18 and […]

The post Working to Prevent Tragedies vs. Waiting to Exploit Them appeared first on NSSF.

Everyone has that kitchen drawer. That’s the one where a book of matches, take-out menus, extra cell-phone power cords, pet treats, a pack of gum and a hammer are kept. That is, of course, if you could only find them under the rest of the junk in there. That’s sort of what our state-by-state landscape […]

The post State Outlook Even More Jumbled for Firearms appeared first on NSSF.

“The classes come close to filling up or do fill up easily,” explains Top Gun Shooting Sports owner Michael Barbour of the NSSF First Shots classes the Taylor, Michigan, range offers to new shooters. To Barbour, the ideal person to market First Shots to is someone who is curious about shooting and is just not […]

The post First Shots Starts — A New Generation At Top Gun Shooting Sports appeared first on NSSF.

The results are still trickling in on Wednesday, but we’re getting a clearer picture of what we can expect when it comes to the next two years for gun laws in the United States. Conventional wisdom says that the party in the White House loses “bigly” when it comes to the midterm elections, but last […]

The post A Blue Ripple, A Red Senate Wall and What It Means for the Firearms Industry appeared first on NSSF.

There’s a special bond Marines have with their rifles. If you know a Marine, just ask. I was imbued with that bond between my rifle and myself more than a quarter of a century ago as a jittery and shaved-bald recruit at Marine Corps Recruit Depot Parris Island, S.C. It was there I memorized The […]

The post Freedom, Firearms and a Grateful Industry appeared first on NSSF.

Develop a modern, up-scale shooting sports destination. In this video, Jeff Swanson from NextGen Range Consulting discusses cost-effective ways to create a Next Generation range through retrofitting. One of the hottest developments in the firearms industry is the evolution of the “Next Generation” shooting range, a move to modern, up-scale shooting sports destinations offering amenities […]

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