ICYMI: Industry News From
March 27–30, 2023

NSSF’s St. Louis Campaign Targets Illegal Gun Purchases

NSSF, together with the ATF and DOJ, announced a month-long public education campaign reminding the Greater St. Louis area public about stiff penalties facing individuals convicted of unlawful firearm purchases.

The “Don’t Lie for the Other Guy” campaign is in its 23rd year and drives home the message that anyone making an illegal firearm purchase faces a federal felony penalty of up to 15 years in prison and up to $250,000 in fines. An additional 15 years can be added if the illegal straw purchase is made with the intent of trafficking across state lines. The program is funded in full by the firearm industry and will now also include federal funding allocated to ATF by Congress. St. Louis was chosen for this specific campaign by ATF.

“We are proud to launch this public awareness campaign in St. Louis and of our more than two-decade cooperative relationship with ATF, DOJ and the entire law enforcement community to assist them in their efforts to reduce criminal acquisition of firearms,” said NSSF President and CEO Joe Bartozzi.

The St. Louis area “Don’t Lie” campaign will total nearly 43 million gross media impressions. This includes more than 25 outdoor billboards, digital bulletin boards and posters in key locations throughout the region. It also includes more than 1,000 radio spots and more than 2.5 million targeted geofenced online mobile advertisements on Facebook and Instagram.

The “Don’t Lie for the Other Guy” program also involves educating firearm retailers to better detect and prevent illegal straw purchases by providing “Don’t Lie for the Other Guy” retailer kits containing a training video and information for storeowners and staff, as well as point-of-purchase displays aimed to deter illegal straw purchasers.

For more info: www.nssf.org, www.donotlie.org.

Gallery Of Guns Sponsors SAF

Gallery of Guns has announced sponsorship of the Second Amendment Foundation (SAF).

“SAF has earned its long-standing reputation of excellence through thoughtful and highly effective legal action and its educational programs,” said Wayne Tumlin, president of Davidson’s Inc. “Gallery of Guns is proud to back the foundation and support its critical mission of safeguarding our Constitutional rights.”

SAF is actively litigating nearly 50 cases, with the bulk of its work in the federal court system. Key areas of litigation include challenges to so-called “sensitive places,” such as places of worship, overturning “assault weapons” bans, large-capacity magazine bans, protecting the continued sale of specific products and classes as well as challenges to ATF’s regulatory overreach.

“We are very grateful for Gallery of Guns’ generous support”, said Lauren Hill, SAF VP of development. “The support of Gallery of Guns allows the Second Amendment Foundation to continue to challenge and erase unconstitutional gun control laws, with the goal of restoring firearms freedom, one lawsuit at a time.”

For more info: www.galleryofguns.com, www.saf.org.

Savage Arms Increases Its Support For Hunter Education

The IHEA-USA announced Savage Arms is increasing its financial support, offering the IHEA-USA additional funding for its dramatically growing programs.

The IHEA-USA is in high-growth mode with its Firearm Fundamentals Courses launched in 2022 and now LearnHunting.org, a robust mentorship and instructor training platform gaining rapid momentum among the state fish and wildlife agencies. Also new for this year, the IHEA-USA will be launching a student publication, Hunters Experience, which, when combined with the continuing education video platforms Hunters Connect and LearnHunting.org, will offer new hunters a variety of ways in which they can successfully gain the necessary confidence to move from the Hunter Education classroom to the field.

Executive Director of the IHEA-USA, Alex Baer, stated, “Savage’s commitment to the future of safe hunting is much appreciated and well established in our community. We are pleased to provide them value by offering a conduit to our dedicated volunteer instructors and hunter education students. We welcome them back for another year with gratitude. The growth of this partnership allows the IHEA-USA to continue the development of technical platforms necessary to meet the expectations of the modern student.”

“The initial and continued education of new hunters and shooters is a large undertaking and an undertaking that, as an industry, we should all be a part of,” stated Beth Shimanski, director of marketing for Savage Arms. “The relationship we’ve experienced with the IHEA-USA in the last year has benefitted our brand. We are strongly committed to firearms and hunter safety and the future of the shooting sports IHEA-USA training brings.”

The IHEA-USA will use a portion of the Savage funding to create content around choosing the proper shotgun for hunting and defining R3 and what it means to the Hunter Education community. IHEA-USA instructors will also offer topics to help Savage Arms with their blog content.

For more info: www.ihea-usa.org, www.savagearms.com.

Celerant Technology Partners With Tactical Gear Distributors

Celerant Technology announced a partnership with Tactical Gear Distributors (TGD), a wholesaler of performance firearms, ammunition and tactical gear for military, law enforcement and shooting sports retailers. Through the integration, dealers can streamline their ordering and sell more products both in-store and online with less effort.

“Tactical Gear Distributors is pleased to partner with Celerant Technology,” said Chris Means, president of TGD. “We are looking forward to offering the product lines we carry to a wider base of shooting sports retailers that may not currently have access to many of the unique brands we carry. We are confident these retailers will do very well with these product lines.”

Through Celerant’s point of sale, dealers can access Tactical Gear Distributors’ product catalog and import the items they want to sell. In addition, dealers can maintain compliance by syncing the data with Celerant’s integrated bound book, or with Celerant’s integrations to third-party A&D software providers.

Dealers can reorder inventory from TGD by sending electronic purchase orders from within Celerant’s back-office software and also automatically reorder inventory by setting up min/max stock levels for items with high turnover.

Celerant’s eCommerce platform allows dealers to automatically pull and display Tactical Gear Distributors product feeds, including product name, description and images. Celerant also offers in-store kiosks that integrate with TGD, allowing dealers to capture more sales in-store. When a customer at the store wants a product that is out of stock or a product the dealer doesn’t typically carry, the dealer can pull up TGD’s entire in-stock inventory, make the sale from the kiosk, and have the customer pick up their order once the store receives the merchandise from TGD.

For more info: www.celerant.com/partner/tgd.

EasyExport Posts Full-Year 2022 Export Insights

EasyExport has posted the full-year 2022 EasyExport Insights Firearm Industry Export report. The reports show worldwide exports for 23 categories of firearms, optics, ammunition and related products, and are based on official U.S. government export data. The current issue covers the three-year period beginning January 1, 2020, and ending December 31, 2022.

In addition to worldwide exports, EasyExport Insights includes detailed reports on U.S. exports to 14 countries: Australia, Brazil, Canada, Denmark, Finland, Germany, New Zealand, Netherlands, Norway, Philippines, Sweden, Switzerland, Thailand and the United Kingdom.

The 2022 Year-End Report reveals global exports jumped more than 25% in 2023 relative to the preceding two years. Exports to Ukraine grew by multiples in many categories. In addition, the huge impact of Canada’s freeze on handgun sales is clear in the December exports to that country.

The EasyExport Insights 2022 Year-End Report is available for free download at the EasyExport website.

For more info: www.easyexport.net.