The National Rifle Association (NRA) annual meeting and exhibits just wrapped up in Dallas a couple of days ago. As I mentioned yesterday, the organization is at a crossroads. There were some interesting developments at the Board of Directors meeting yesterday that you can read more about on Stephen Gutowski’s The Reload (some free, some paywalled) and John Richardson’s No Lawyers Only Guns and Money blog (free).
I was interested to receive an email from the NRA this morning announcing the results of the board’s decisions on Monday. I already knew the election results so what interested me was the reported attendance at the meetings and exhibits: 72,000.
I have attended the NRA meetings three times previously. The reported attendance at those meetings was as follows:
- 2019 Indianapolis: 77,000+
- 2016 Louisville: 80,000+
- 2013 Houston: 86,000+
All three of those meetings were very crowded, so the numbers seem reasonable to me. I have no idea where the 72,000+ number for Dallas comes from because the show floor never seemed busy the entire weekend. And I was on the floor quite a bit hawking my book and visiting people.
Vendors who spent considerable time and money to be at the exhibits would know better than me. Those I spoke with said the attendance was way off this year. I’ll be interested to hear what, if anything, those vendors say publicly about it.
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