Shall Not Be Questioned

Today, the primary anti-gun organization in Pennsylvania decided to host a rally in the Capitol. In response, some gun owners decided to counter it. It’s still not over, and I hope that the pro-gun folks remain respectful and simply stick to some post-rally lobbying rather than trying to argue with hardcore anti-gun advocates.

Here are a few reports of what has happened so far. PAIndependent posted a photo of CeaseFire PA’s indoor rally that looks to be about 150-200 people. They also noted that the outdoor rally by gun rights folks didn’t do too shabby given the weather:

Impressive crowd at this morning’s #gunrights rally on Capitol steps, considering the wind chill is in the negatives. At least 100 here.

— PA Independent (@PAindependent) January 23, 2013

And here’s a great sign with a photo courtesy of @JonEMTP:

UPDATE: A later report says that there were about 250 pro-gun people.

NRA was part of the team that tried to reason with Reed Exhibitors over their ban on modern sporting rifles at the Eastern Sports & Outdoor Show. They didn’t make any call to officially pull out until tonight. Now, they have. NRA had multiple large booths set up for the general organization, Friends of NRA, and their hunting services program. Apparently, whatever conversation broke down yesterday broke down spectacularly.

I’ve pondered privately if the decision to ban modern semi-automatic firearms from the Eastern Sports & Outdoor Show was actually made prior to any key deadlines for vendors to pull out of their contracts with minimal loss of deposits. I don’t know the key contract dates since I’m not a vendor, but we do seem to have some level of confirmation that Reed Exhibition did not disclose their decision to vendors in a timely manner.

Reed’s statement on the ban – which appears to have been news to many of the exhibitors – appeared on January 15. That’s 8 days ago. Rumor started to leak publicly around January 11. That’s only 12 days ago. According to a member of the NSSF Board of Governors, they knew about the looming ban for nearly a month and tried to get Reed to change its position.

As a member of the Board of Governors of the National Shooting Sports Foundation, I have been working, in good faith, with Reed to find a compromise to allow the show to continue at the caliber to which my fellow exhibitors, manufacturers and the more than 200,000 attendees have come to expect. After nearly a month of discussions, which concluded yesterday, I believe a compromise will not be reached.

I also made a comment to Sebastian earlier today that something must have come to a head today or yesterday. To suddenly have Smith & Wesson and Ruger announce they won’t support the show, along with The Outdoor Channel suddenly no longer being listed as an event sponsor, and big groups like Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation dropping out, it was all quite a bit for one day. The statement from The Sportman’s Shop confirms that something big happened yesterday that was enough to send most of the industry fleeing without looking back.

Several people have said that the real impact to Reed’s bottom line may not be this year. Instead, it will likely be next year. Here’s what one vendor has to say about the economic bind he’s in with the show:

Provided Reed doesn’t change its stance, something Olien said the company told him it does not intend to do, Olien will decided by the weekend if it’s worth risking the trip.

One things is for sure.

Even if he comes this year, there will be no second trip for MN next winter.

He predicts a lot of vendors will be making a similar decision.

“I can’t afford to be associated with a show that’s so wishy-washy,” Olien said. “It’s been a wonderful show in the past, but they really flubbed it up. This show will always have a stigma as being that show.”

Reed has successfully made the Eastern Sports & Outdoor Show a dirty brand name. For exhibitors, they have created the perception that they are unreliable and will not treat you fairly. For attendees, they are still promising celebrities and vendors they cannot deliver. At this point, the local media hitting Reed’s target audience for attendance is reporting that attendees can expect about 15% of booths to be empty. There’s still another week and a half for more vendors to pull out, so that could increase – along with the number of headlines about how much smaller the show will be. If people pay their $14/head to get in and find out that many of the stalls are empty, they will not be pleased and will not return for future shows.

Reed may have told NSSF that all legal firearms will be allowed next year, but it’s pretty clear that all vendors will not return, nor will all attendees.

This isn’t quite a Cabela’s level exit from the East Coast’s (previously) largest sportmen’s show since Cabela’s was an actual sponsor instead of just an exhibitor, but it is very close because of the major profile of the company.

Ruger addresses the concern that so many smaller vendors have about pulling out of this show. It’s not that they don’t support the Second Amendment, it’s that the can often see the difference between profit and loss for the entire year based on the sales at this single show.

One such company is GUTNTAG, a Pennsylvania company that I found mentioned in one of the many headline stories about regional exhibitors pulling out. Their statement says that they are really true believers in the Second Amendment even though they sell cooking seasonings:

We have made the costly decision to withdraw because it is the right thing to do. We are a young company that relies on this one venue to create our operating capital for the year; however we cannot support uninformed businesses caving to political pressures caused by broadly politicized events. We proudly support the 2nd Amendment in the capacity for which it was intended; the right of citizens to keep and bear arms. Our freedom to do so was not for hunting or competition shooting, but protection for law abiding citizens.

In the words of Thomas Jefferson, “No free man shall ever be debarred the use of arms. The strongest reason for the people to retain the right to keep and bear arms is, as a last resort, to protect themselves against tyranny in government.” Friends, if we continue to give in inch-by-inch, we will find ourselves with no protection and a tyrannical government.

With such a strong statement, we decided that we’ll show them some support and buy their seasonings.

I think some of the most interesting reactions have been from folks who are still baffled by NSSF’s request for consumers to continue to support the gun banning exhibition company. This is the take from celebrity hunter Lee Lakosky:

“I don’t know why the NSSF would promote this ban just to please one vendor out of twelve hundred,” he said. “Anyone who believes this isn’t a big deal is wrong. It is a big deal because this is where it starts. There’s a reason for the Second Amendment and we all need to band together and stand behind it.”

Jim Shepherd from The Outdoor Wire had this to say about the statement this morning:

Saying the “hunting and shooting sports community needs to be unified in the face of political challenges” while encouraging attendance at an event which has banned the nation’s most popular and best-selling rifle seems contradictory.

People on Twitter also shared my sentiments when I posted that my first reaction was “WTF?” Granted, The Outdoor Wire adds more to the context in terms of how NSSF may have been limited in how strongly they could condemn Reed Exhibitions, but I don’t think anyone would have complained if they simply cut the last two paragraphs from their statement – the two where they actively encouraged people to give Reed money, even as they ban modern semi-automatic rifles.

TOW notes that as big as many attendees believe that SHOT is for Reed (they manage it on behalf of NSSF), it’s a drop in the bucket compared to their other shows. Hell, even in this industry, the 60,000 people who attend SHOT don’t compare to the estimated 200,000 who attend the Eastern Sports & Outdoor Show. And, unlike SHOT, Reed is directly making $14/head for every single one of those attendees, plus the exhibitor fees of many thousands of dollars.

At this point, ESOS is starting to recognize the backlash. They finally removed Cabela’s from their list of sponsors, and they have slowed their advertising promising certain celebrity speakers who has since publicly cancelled. I even saw one newspaper report that said the ESOS spokeswoman was starting to speak again – though she’s not really saying anything more than the original statement and confirming that they do have exhibitors backing out.

For those who still want to let the ESOS know how they feel about the subject – and let them know if they have lost your business as an attendee – here is a repeat listing of the contact information that they pulled down from the ESOS site right as the controversy erupted:

Group Vice President – Ed Several
Phone: 203-840-5932 Fax: 203-840-9932 Email: eseveral@reedexpo.com

Event Director – Chris O’Hara
Phone: 717-368-7487 Fax: 203-840-9868 Email: cohara@reedexpo.com

Public Relations – Deb Davis
Phone: 717-834-6267 Fax: 717-834-6207 Email: ddavis@conceptoneinc.com

Marketing – Cathy Kitlasz
Phone: 203-840-5871 Fax: 203-840-9781 Email: ckitlasz@reedexpo.com

I contacted Ms. Davis on behalf of the blog, but she has refused to respond. Of course, we’re not alone. Many media outlets have reported that they are trying to contact her and other Reed spokesmen, but they all refuse to return any calls or emails.

UPDATE: And now minutes after I hit publish, Smith & Wesson announces that they are pulling out of the Eastern Sports & Outdoor Show. Wow.