Anticipating SHOT Show 2012

It's the biggest event of the year for the hunters, campers, outdoorsman and, now, law enforcement. Well, maybe... Of course I speak of SHOT Show: the Shooting Hunting Outdoor Trade Show run by the National Shooting Sports Foundation (NSSF). Held in Las Vegas for the past several years this event fills the Sands Convention Center to over-capacity.

That is both good news and bad news. Everyone I know who attends SHOT Show does it with a mix of excited and stressed anticipation. The excited part involves a number of things. I'll see people that I haven't seen since LAST SHOT Show and be able to socialize with them (briefly). I'll see tons of new equipment, guns, knives, lights, tents and other gear that I'll enjoy learning about either for business or personal use. I'll build my "wish list" to bring home to my family (knowing full well I probably won't get anything on it). I'll get a TON of great ideas for articles and evaluations to serve you, our faithful readership.

On the other hand, I'll walk ten to twelve miles each day for five days in a row. I'll eat WAY over-priced food that is sometimes not identifiable and be happy just because I was that hungry. I'll sleep too little, talk too much and lose about five pounds (not that I don't have it to lose). I'll return home (did I mention I hate flying?) with an overload of information and have just a few days to compile it into some semblance of respectable reporting on the "highlights."

The question I think everyone in the industry asks themselves is this: Is it worth going to? And the answer is, Oh, heck yeah! I wouldn't miss it even if, as my friend and fellow writer John Morrison once described it, "I had to eat lizard on a stick;" which is sometimes about what some of the food looks like.

The Officer.com / Law Enforcement Technology magazine & Law Enforcement Product News magazine team will report on SHOT Show as quickly and efficiently as possible. There is an Officer Radio show scheduled around it and I'm SURE you'll see a video or three (or more) coming out of it as well.

See you there?