NAAS President's Welcome Message

Welcome…to the new National Association of Arms Show Website! Your Board of Directors met in Phoenix during the May 2009 N.R.A. Show, and we have charted an ambitious program for the coming year. Our objective is to preserve and strengthen gun shows all across America, and we will need your help to accomplish these objectives.

The Obama administration has decided to wait for “the right moment” politically to move forward with their radical gun-control agenda. Their “right moment” could come at any time a national tragedy involving guns unfolds. It could come when they succumb to the pressure from the radical anti-gunners such as Sarah Brady and her friends in Congress. The specter of the enactment of the extreme gun-control agenda of the Obama administration and the radical anti-gunners in Congress is what is driving the current unprecedented level of activity of sales of guns and ammunition and the huge crowds attending gun shows all across America. Gun shows are much more than a place for law-abiding citizens to buy, sell and trade their guns. They are the “town meeting” of those of us who believe in the Constitution. They are a platform where those opposed to the radical gun-control schemes of the Obama administration meet to exchange ideas and discuss politics. These are the reasons that our enemies want to regulate and eventually eliminate gun shows in America-they want to eliminate the place where their opponents meet and exchange ideas. Gun shows are as much about the First Amendment…the right to assemble and the right of free speech…as they are about exercising our Second Amendment rights.

It will be a challenging four years. Your N.A.A.S. Board of Directors is committed to preserving and strengthening your right to continue to hold gun shows. We will be working with members of Congress and with the N.R.A. to defeat legislation such as the Lautenberg=Reed Senate Bill (S. 843, now in committee) which purports to close the “gun show loophole” but which actually will eliminate gun shows as we know them.

We have a new liability insurance program which is much less expensive than our present policy and provides each of us, as gun show producers, better protection and more comprehensive coverage for our shows for substantially less money.

It is going to be a challenging four years, but it can also be the best four years we have ever experienced for our shows. Our goals include preserving and strengthening gun shows, and ensuring the right for each show promoter in America to continue to operate their shows without further regulation or interference from an anti-gun Administration or Congress.

Robert Templeton, NAAS President