The SHOT Show® (SHOTSM stands for Shooting, Hunting and Outdoor Trade) is the once-a-year gathering place for the shooting, hunting and outdoors industry—manufacturers, wholesalers, retailers, publishers and wildlife conservation organizations. It’s where a passion for firearms, ammunition and outdoors equipment, plus the industry’s unified support for the Second Amendment, are on display.
The SHOT Show is owned and sponsored by the National Shooting Sports Foundation®, trade association for the firearms, ammunition, hunting and shooting sports industry. The show is produced and managed by ConvExx. The show generates millions of the dollars in revenue that funds NSSF programs and services that help “promote, protect and preserve” hunting and the shooting sports. Among those programs are Project ChildSafe, the industry’s firearm safety education program; Don’t Lie for the Other Guy, which works to help prevent illegal straw purchases; and First Shots, which provides introductions to target shooting. See nssf.org for more information on NSSF programs and member services.
- The 2015 SHOT Show runs Tuesday, January 20, through Friday, January 23, at the Sands Expo and Convention Center, Las Vegas, Nevada. The SHOT Show exhibition floor opens at 8:30 a.m. each day and closes at 5:30 p.m. except for the last day when the show closes at 4 p.m. (Law enforcement booths located in Venetian ballrooms open at 8 a.m. daily.) See complete show floor hours. The Press Room is located in the Venetian Murano Ballroom on Level 3. The Press Room opens at 7:30 a.m. each day. See complete Press Room hours. SHOT Show Industry Day at the Range, slated for Monday, January 19, at the Boulder City Rifle & Pistol Club, is for exhibitor-invited media and buyers.
- This is the 37th annual SHOT Show. The first SHOT Show was in 1979 in St. Louis, Missouri. The SHOT Show has been held 16 times in Las Vegas, more than in any other host city, including consecutively since 2010. SHOT Show will be presented at the Sands Expo and Convention Center through 2020, under the latest agreement.
- SHOT is the largest event held at the Sands Expo and Convention Center. Total exhibit space for the 2015 show is expected to be more than 630,000 net square feet—equivalent to more than 13 acres, the area covered by the New Orleans Superdome or the base of the Great Pyramid of Giza.
- The SHOT Show boasts 12.5 miles of aisles—just a little less than the distance of half a marathon. Exhibitors, buyers, media and other industry professionals hail from all 50 states and 100 countries.
- Nearly 70,000 professionals in the shooting, hunting and outdoors industry attended SHOT Show in 2014. The show is for trade only and is not open to the general public.
- The 2015 SHOT Show will have more than 1,600 exhibitors and more than 2,400 members of the outdoor and mainstream media, including international media, cover the show and promote the products they see at SHOT in their print, Internet, radio and television stories.
- The total weight of the exhibits for the 2014 SHOT Show brought in by Freeman, the SHOT Show’s general service contractor, exceeded 6,400,000 pounds, the heaviest show ever held at the Sands Expo Center.
- Over 100 buses are hired by the SHOT Show to accommodate SHOT Show attendees staying at partner hotels along the Las Vegas Strip for complimentary rides to the Sands Expo Center.
- It took 250 concessionaires to accommodate the food and beverage bistros inside the Sands Expo Center during the 2014 SHOT Show.
- The Law Enforcement section remains the fastest growing segment of the SHOT Show. To illustrate this growth, law enforcement was started 12 years ago, covering 7,000 square feet; today it covers more than 170,000 square feet of the show.
- Over 2,100 people attended the opening night NSSF State of the Industry Dinner at the 2014 SHOT Show.
- Over 10,000 scans for more information were made by media and buyers of the products located in the New Product Center of the 2014 SHOT Show.
- There were over 340,000 visits by attendees at the 2014 SHOT Show to the 2014 SHOT Show mobile app.
- 98% of all exhibitors at the 2014 SHOT Show renewed their booth space for the 2015 SHOT Show before the 2014 SHOT Show even concluded.
- The 2014 SHOT Show brought over $89.6 million in non-gaming revenue to the Las Vegas economy. Firearms and ammunition are a $8 billion industry. The total economic impact of the industry is nearly $38 billion, which supports more than 245,000 jobs.
The SHOT Show’s website is shotshow.org. Follow SHOT Show on Twitter @NSSFSHOTShow and #SHOTShow, and on Facebook.