2023 NRA Convention

[Cameramonkey]

I saw John Correia of Active Self Protection speak this afternoon and chatted with him afterwards.

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Also chatted with John Lott for a bit alter he signed a couple of books for me. All in all a really good time, glad I went.

I happened to be in the Trijicon booth when somebody came in and asked them about keeping up with Holosun. That was quite interesting. The two guys representing Trijicon literally bristled with anger and I heard one of them mutter something about not making Chinese junk.

Sure that's John and not Rupert Bonham?

I was thinking Smith & Wesson is its own company. At least according to the stock market. I own stock in both American Outdoors and Smith & Wesson. S&W pays dividends, AOB doesn't, or at least hasn't.

Interesting thought. Have they put out anything new recently? Maybe they didnt think it was worth it with nothing new to promote?

Or they think they are just so big they dont NEED the exposure?

 

[actaeon277]

That is really pathetic. Who sends a dork halfway around the world to trash a trade show?

anti-gunners?

 

[actaeon277]

Did you also catch his wording at the 1:45 mark?

which part?
where he said 'fear', cause I quoted that

 

[The Bubba Effect]

That is really pathetic. Who sends a dork halfway around the world to trash a trade show?

Subjects. Seeking that all importamt pat on the head for wringing their hands.

 

[cg21]

I thought it was great seeing all those midway badges walking around Indy I never felt safer.

Did anyone go to the speakers on Friday? How was it anywhere we can catch the highlights? I’d like to hear from my favorite governor.

 

[KellyinAvon]

I thought it was great seeing all those midway badges walking around Indy I never felt safer.

Did anyone go to the speakers on Friday? How was it anywhere we can catch the highlights? I’d like to hear from my favorite governor.

Not sure if any INGOers were present. Guy (Relford) was there, not sure if he'll have a synopsis later. I haven't checked out the podcast from Saturday yet, might be something there.

 

[bigretic]

My son's blood glucose became low, while there Saturday, stupidly we forgot to bring crackers, or something for a low glucose...I had to buy a Coke, and a bag of chips....Lay's chips $4....Coke $5......those are just stupid high prices!

You must not get out much. Seems normal if not low for convention venue pricing. lol.

Sorry i missed it, but just didn't work out this time. I'll forever regret not getting a red SAR bag...

 

[KittySlayer]

Did we win?

With tens of thousands NRA participants many carrying guns and all hyped up like a kid at a candy store touching more guns certainly we beat GFZ Chicago for number of deaths this weekend.

How many died?

 

[wtburnette]

Did we win?

With tens of thousands NRA participants many carrying guns and all hyped up like a kid at a candy store touching more guns certainly we beat GFZ Chicago for number of deaths this weekend.

How many died?

The only losers were the hopes of the Anti-gunners for a bloody weekend.

 

[Destro]

Did we win?

We won the battle, but assuming WLP was re-elected, we are losing the war.

 

[firefighterjohn]

Went Friday morning with my son and son inlaw at the open. We all had a great time. Met Hickock45 and Clint from Classic Firearms...great friendly guys! I specifically was looking at new tactical 12 ga shotgun offerings: Savage Renegauge Security, Mossberg 940 Pro Tactical and Beretta A300 Ultima Patrol...they were all very cool, controls easy to manipulate and sharp looking. The Mossberg was the only one with optic-ready receiver cuts for RSMc pattern optics. Beretta said that will be included in future offerings. The IWI 12 ga with 3 rotating tubes was pretty cool also.

The Zastava PAP M77 .308 rifle was really neat. The Ruger SFAR .308 was really sharp as well and very lightweight.

The Sig Sauer booth was huge; especially liked their future weapons display. It was pretty crowded the entire time.

All in all, it was a great day to spend with my sons, see some awesome firepower, add to our wish lists...and see many other freedom loving people doing the same!

 

[Tactically Fat]

Hah. You suckers paid to park.

That said - on my ingress and egress to a public parking garage north of the Government center/s, there were oodles of open spaces. Oodles I say.

Almost immediately upon entering the exhibition hall at about 9:25 or so Friday AM, I spied a local shop owner. Didn't speak to him because he was with a buddy and he wouldn't know me (though we've met several times both at USDS and at "my" church). Ran into one of the gun counter employees of The Outdoorsman. He was working at the elk hunting booth? Something about elk hunting. There was another Outdoorsman guy working another booth, too.

Ran into and re-introduced myself to @Cameramonkey . He told me that I was neither tactical nor fat. Yeah...well... He's neither a camera nor a monkey. so there. Met @Haven at the same time since they were together. Probably not in the Biblical sense, but maybe. I don't judge?

Ran into Bobcat Steel's very own Kimball @ZbornacSVT and his wife. Talked with them a min. He was busy talking to a former INGO'er manning another booth. I think it was lawwra? lawra? He hasn't been on in ages though. That's ok.

Took a break to wonder the hallways. Right as Mike, Mr. Guns N Gear came in the Capitol St. Entrance - spied him, introduced myself, and said hi. Then let him on his way. No idea what booth he was headed to, but I didn't see him when I went back in the show.

Paid way way way way way too much for a Coke Zero. If I'd known the price going in to the transaction I'd have done without.

Found the Cloud Defensive booth. Got the upgraded clip for my MCH. Saw their new duty handheld on the table. One of the younger fellers and I are graduates of the same fine institute of higher education. I in 2001, he in '19. *Sigh*

I walked around there from about 9:25 am until about 2:30 pm. I didn't take a single sticker nor a single patch. Why? I asked myself. Where am I going to put them / do with them? My ammo cans are all covered in stickers already. And patches are dumb - plus I have precious little velcro real estate on stuff anyhow. It also takes away from being gray man.

Speaking of being gray man - I was there in very business casual clothing. A nice polo shirt with a pair of casual Costco khaki pants. People looked at my lanyard all day to see if I was there with a company/vendor/exhibitor. No camo, no cringy T-shirt, no typical "gun-guy" garb, etc.

I'm glad I went. It was neat to see all that stuff.

 

[WebSnyper]

Hah. You suckers paid to park.

That said - on my ingress and egress to a public parking garage north of the Government center/s, there were oodles of open spaces. Oodles I say.

Almost immediately upon entering the exhibition hall at about 9:25 or so Friday AM, I spied a local shop owner. Didn't speak to him because he was with a buddy and he wouldn't know me (though we've met several times both at USDS and at "my" church). Ran into one of the gun counter employees of The Outdoorsman. He was working at the elk hunting booth? Something about elk hunting. There was another Outdoorsman guy working another booth, too.

Ran into and re-introduced myself to @Cameramonkey . He told me that I was neither tactical nor fat. Yeah...well... He's neither a camera nor a monkey. so there. Met @Haven at the same time since they were together. Probably not in the Biblical sense, but maybe. I don't judge?

Ran into Bobcat Steel's very own Kimball @ZbornacSVT and his wife. Talked with them a min. He was busy talking to a former INGO'er manning another booth. I think it was lawwra? lawra? He hasn't been on in ages though. That's ok.

Took a break to wonder the hallways. Right as Mike, Mr. Guns N Gear came in the Capitol St. Entrance - spied him, introduced myself, and said hi. Then let him on his way. No idea what booth he was headed to, but I didn't see him when I went back in the show.

Paid way way way way way too much for a Coke Zero. If I'd known the price going in to the transaction I'd have done without.

Found the Cloud Defensive booth. Got the upgraded clip for my MCH. Saw their new duty handheld on the table. One of the younger fellers and I are graduates of the same fine institute of higher education. I in 2001, he in '19. *Sigh*

I walked around there from about 9:25 am until about 2:30 pm. I didn't take a single sticker nor a single patch. Why? I asked myself. Where am I going to put them / do with them? My ammo cans are all covered in stickers already. And patches are dumb - plus I have precious little velcro real estate on stuff anyhow. It also takes away from being gray man.

Speaking of being gray man - I was there in very business casual clothing. A nice polo shirt with a pair of casual Costco khaki pants. People looked at my lanyard all day to see if I was there with a company/vendor/exhibitor. No camo, no cringy T-shirt, no typical "gun-guy" garb, etc.

I'm glad I went. It was neat to see all that stuff.

I didn't pay to park, but can't exactly advertise it since it wouldn't be open to the masses. Parked, walked down to the convention center. Same as I did in 2019.

That said, I'm sure I'll spend more in the long run on firearms I got to fondle during the event than I'll ever end up paying for parking.

 

[dusty88]

I went Friday and Sunday. Sooo many booths, not enough money to spend on accessories. I bought 6 things that I didn't even know I needed before. That's not counting the firearms I want to buy later.
Echo that a $5 Diet Coke was too expensive.
Some seminars sounded pretty good, but I spent all my time in the exhibit hall.
edit to add: I received 2 free t-shirts and a lot of stickers for my cooler plus a couple of keychains so that makes up for the $5 soda

Best of all, my husband won a night vision monocular.

 

[Haven]

Hah. You suckers paid to park.

That said - on my ingress and egress to a public parking garage north of the Government center/s, there were oodles of open spaces. Oodles I say.

Almost immediately upon entering the exhibition hall at about 9:25 or so Friday AM, I spied a local shop owner. Didn't speak to him because he was with a buddy and he wouldn't know me (though we've met several times both at USDS and at "my" church). Ran into one of the gun counter employees of The Outdoorsman. He was working at the elk hunting booth? Something about elk hunting. There was another Outdoorsman guy working another booth, too.

Ran into and re-introduced myself to @Cameramonkey . He told me that I was neither tactical nor fat. Yeah...well... He's neither a camera nor a monkey. so there. Met @Haven at the same time since they were together. Probably not in the Biblical sense, but maybe. I don't judge?

Ran into Bobcat Steel's very own Kimball @ZbornacSVT and his wife. Talked with them a min. He was busy talking to a former INGO'er manning another booth. I think it was lawwra? lawra? He hasn't been on in ages though. That's ok.

Took a break to wonder the hallways. Right as Mike, Mr. Guns N Gear came in the Capitol St. Entrance - spied him, introduced myself, and said hi. Then let him on his way. No idea what booth he was headed to, but I didn't see him when I went back in the show.

Paid way way way way way too much for a Coke Zero. If I'd known the price going in to the transaction I'd have done without.

Found the Cloud Defensive booth. Got the upgraded clip for my MCH. Saw their new duty handheld on the table. One of the younger fellers and I are graduates of the same fine institute of higher education. I in 2001, he in '19. *Sigh*

I walked around there from about 9:25 am until about 2:30 pm. I didn't take a single sticker nor a single patch. Why? I asked myself. Where am I going to put them / do with them? My ammo cans are all covered in stickers already. And patches are dumb - plus I have precious little velcro real estate on stuff anyhow. It also takes away from being gray man.

Speaking of being gray man - I was there in very business casual clothing. A nice polo shirt with a pair of casual Costco khaki pants. People looked at my lanyard all day to see if I was there with a company/vendor/exhibitor. No camo, no cringy T-shirt, no typical "gun-guy" garb, etc.

I'm glad I went. It was neat to see all that stuff.

It was very nice to meet you on Friday. I miss having "free" parking downtown. Funny enough, CameraMonkey mentioned where you worked later. I know that building well. I moved that agency into that building back in 1996. In fact I was stationed out there for the first month that building was up and running. I also had the pleasure of cleaning out the old building on the west side. This was back before there was a consolidated IT agency.

 

[TheGrumpyGuy]

which part?
where he said 'fear', cause I quoted that

"At the heart of this frantic buy-up of some of the most lethal weaponry outside of the U.S. government, is this overwhelming sense of fear..."

Kind of paints the event in a totally different light than what it actually is

 

[firefighterjohn]

Took a break to wonder the hallways. Right as Mike, Mr. Guns N Gear came in the Capitol St. Entrance - spied him, introduced myself, and said hi. Then let him on his way. No idea what booth he was headed to, but I didn't see him when I went back in the show.

We didn't see him but when we we leaving we saw Mac of Military Arms Channel being interviewed on the side walk. Didn't hear much of the exchange but I heard Mac say something like: "...you want to blame the AR-15..." to the interviewer. I wondered who the interviewer was and would love to hear the rest of that exchange.

 

[miguel]

Anyone know where the 2024 event is? I tried to Google but the first few pages were all about 2024 GOP hopefulls, so I gave up looking.

 

[xwing]

Hah. You suckers paid to park.

That said - on my ingress and egress to a public parking garage north of the Government center/s, there were oodles of open spaces. Oodles I say.

Please do tell... I paid $26 and $20 for Fri & Sat respectively. (And I didn't even get a coveted SAR bag )

Also, interestingly enough, the closest and largest parking across the street was technically a statutory GFZ (gun "free" zone)
25 IAC 8-3-1 Weapons and devices prohibited
Sec. 1. No person in possession of a deadly weapon, destructive device, weapon of mass destruction, or any other device commonly used in furtherance of terrorism, or is readily capable of causing serious bodily injury as determined by an authorized law enforcement officer shall be permitted into or permitted to remain in the Indiana government center campus.
25 IAC 8-2-1 Definitions
(4) "Indiana government center campus" means the following:
...
(E) The Washington Street garage.


If there are cheap / free options, I'd love to know for the future!

 

[Htrailblazer]

Anyone know where the 2024 event is? I tried to Google but the first few pages were all about 2024 GOP hopefulls, so I gave up looking.

2024 is in Dallas May 17th-19th. There was a housing booth outside the main room where you could book hotels for next year, the housing guy said 2025 is Atlanta.