Published by The Daily Signal
By Ted Bromund
LAS VEGAS—One of the nation’s largest gatherings of gun owners, hunters, and sports shooters was bigger and better than ever, and again set the tone for the year in firearms—and for the people who love and work in the industry.
In previous years, the tone at the Shooting, Hunting, and Outdoor Trades Show, known as the SHOT Show, had been buoyant but concerned.
Buoyant because in the years after 2009, fears about what President Barack Obama would do drove gun sales to unprecedented heights. Concerned because—well, it’s never pleasant to know that the man in the White House doesn’t like you.
The mood was a bit different this time as I walked the aisles at the 40th annual SHOT Show, which closed Friday. You might say it was expectant, but nervous.
Expectant because no one at the event, organized by the National Shooting Sports Foundation, is in any doubt that President Donald Trump likes gun owners, and everyone hopes he’ll do right by them. Nervous because—well, so far, nothing much has happened.
True, good changes come slowly in this part of the world. During the past few months, Congress rewrote the entire tax code, but couldn’t find the time to pass legislation designed to protect the ears of gun owners.
As Jeff Folloder, executive director of the National Firearms Act Trade & Collectors Association, puts it of firearms reforms: “Watching grass grow is exciting. This is like watching dry paint fade.”
Yet the potential is there for 2018 to be an amazing year for American gun owners and gun-makers. At the top of a lot of wish lists is completing export-control reform.
Begun by the Obama administration, export-control reform has moved many nonmilitary items from the purview of the State Department and given them to the Commerce Department. This dramatically reduced State’s workload, and allowed it to be more careful about exports of genuinely military items.
See the full story here.
Link: http://dailysignal.com/2018/01/30/it-could-be-a-great-year-for-americas-gun-owners-and-gun-makers/
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