What to Know about the NSSF Ahead of the SHOT Show in Las Vegas Next Week

As the Gun Industry’s Power Broker, NSSF Outspends Every Other Gun Group on Federal Lobbying

Next week, the gun industry will head to Las Vegas for the annual Shooting, Hunting, Outdoor Trade (SHOT) Show, the largest trade show of its kind for gun makers and sellers, which is put on by the National Shooting Sports Foundation (NSSF) and held just two miles from the site of the deadliest mass shooting in modern American history. This year’s convention will be held during National Gun Violence Survivors Week.

Here’s what you need to know about the NSSF:

• Like the NRA, the NSSF pushes a guns-everywhere agenda, endorsing permitless carry and concealed-carry reciprocity between states, for example, while claiming that “[g]un-free zones do not keep people safe.”
  • Ironically, SHOT Show attendees are prohibited from carrying their personally owned firearms, and the guns on display must be deactivated.
    
• The NSSF’s Board of Governors is composed of executives from the country’s largest gun companies, including Ruger, Smith & Wesson, and Daniel Defense, which made the AR-style rifles recovered in the recent Lewiston, Highland Park, and Uvalde shootings, respectively.
  
• With over 9,000 members representing every facet of the firearm supply chain, the NSSF is the gun industry’s official trade association and power broker, serving as the front group and lobbying arm of America’s gun makers and sellers.

• Not only has the NSSF lobbied against gun safety measures like bans on assault weapons — which it rebranded as “modern sporting rifles,” or MSRs, in 2009 — but the organization actively encourages its members to produce and sell more of these deadly products.
  • NSSF marketing guides urge gun makers to capitalize on fear, social unrest, and the possibility of further gun restrictions and confiscation to market their products.

• The NSSF has downplayed the seriousness of ghost guns and supports the sellers of these DIY kits that allow people, including those prohibited from owning firearms, to easily build unserialized, untraceable firearms in minutes.
  • They’ve also allowed ghost gun makers and sellers to exhibit at the SHOT Show.

• In recent years, the NSSF has outspent every other gun group on federal lobbying, reaching $4.8 and $4.22 million in 2022 and 2023, respectively.

This year’s trade show is happening in the midst of the Attorney General of The State of New York v. NRA trial, which centers on allegations by New York Attorney General Letitia James that NRA leaders, including former CEO Wayne LaPierre, improperly diverted millions of dollars from the non-profit to benefit NRA executives. 

“Make no mistake: the NSSF’s first priority is boosting gun industry profits, even if it comes at the cost of human lives,”  said John Feinblatt, president of Everytown for Gun Safety. “As the gun industry parties in Las Vegas next week — just two miles from the site of the deadliest mass shooting in modern American history — we’ll keep fighting to dismantle the ‘guns everywhere’ culture they’ve perpetuated.”

To speak with an Everytown expert, please contact [email protected].