December 6, 2010

Vol. 11 No. 48

This Week:

News of Note

Government Relations

SHOT Show

Jobs

SHOTBusiness.com Gets Redesign

READ THE INDUSTRY'S LEADING TRADE MAGAZINE ONLINE . . . Readers of SHOT Business, the firearms industry's leading trade magazine and the official publication of NSSF, will have 24-7 access to the magazine's many articles, features and columns on the newly redesigned and upgraded website shotbusiness.com. NSSF has revised the site to provide more timely updates and a full e-version of the current edition. SHOT Business is published seven times a year through a publishing agreement with Bonnier Corp., publishers of Field & Stream and Outdoor Life. All content from the most recent issue of the magazine can be found on the website, including the regular ATF questions-and-answers section, the "From NSSF" section, the popular "What's Selling" and "Undercover Shopper" features and "New Products," among other news. The contents of SHOT Daily, the affiliated news publication of the SHOT Show, will be available on the site. Visitors to the site are reminded that they can subscribe to SHOT Business content through Facebook and Twitter.

News of Note

  • GIVING A FIREARM AS A GIFT? SOME REMINDERS FROM NSSF . . . The holidays are just around the corner. As hunters, shooters, collectors or just plain plinkers, it's a natural instinct to want to share our enjoyment of firearms with others. What better way to do that than to make a gift of a firearm to a family member, close friend or relative? In a news release today, NSSF answers some questions consumers may have about giving a firearm as a gift.

  • OUTDOOR SKILLS LINKED TO HEALTH, LEARNING AND LIFESTYLE BENEFITS . . . The Association of Fish and Wildlife Agencies has released a white paper, Benefits of Outdoor Skills to Health, Learning and Lifestyle, which documents the contributions of outdoor skills and wildlife-related outdoor education to health, learning and lifestyle in general and hunting and fishing participation in particular. Learn more about this white paper, which demonstrates the importance of outdoor activity on youth's physical development and reduction in both Attention Deficit Disorder and crime.

  • NSSF ON YOUTUBE . . . Have you tuned into the NSSF Channel on YouTube lately? With more than 650,000 views and counting, NSSF-produced video content continues to surge in popularity with shooting sports enthusiasts across the Web. Find tips, news and analysis on a variety of topics at youtube.com/theNSSF.

Government Relations

  • NICS BLACK FRIDAY OUTAGE . . . An outage of the National Instant Criminal Background Check System (NICS) adversely affected many retailers and consumers on Black Friday. NSSF has been in contact with FBI-NICS staff, who explained that the outage was attributable to a computer glitch that overloaded the system. A short-term fix has been applied to the system and once the holiday season is over, a long-term fix will be completed. Black Friday was the second highest day for NICS activity for non-point-of-contact states and partial-point-of-contact states. It was the third busiest day overall for NICS with more than 87,000 checks being conducted. Though NICS was down for approximately 3.5 hours, eCheck and point-of-contact states were only down for one hour -- perhaps another reason for dealers to consider using eCheck. NICS officials were exceedingly apologetic for the unscheduled outage.

    View full-size graph

  • NOVEMBER NSSF-ADJUSTED NICS FIGURES . . . The FBI has released its National Instant Criminal Background Check System (NICS) figures for November 2010. NSSF-adjusted figures (945,463) show a 9.7 percent increase over NSSF-adjusted figures from November 2009 (861,575). The adjusted NICS data were derived by NSSF by subtracting out NICS purpose-code permit checks used by several states such as Kentucky and Utah for CCW permit application checks as well as checks on active CCW permit databases. Though not a direct correlation to firearms sales, the NSSF-adjusted NICS data provide a more accurate picture of current market conditions. Questions concerning NSSF-adjusted NICS data should be directed to NSSF research at 203-426-1320 or research@nssf.org. In addition to other purposes, NICS is used to check transactions of firearms sales and transfers on new and used handguns and long guns. Click here to find additional information on NICS and to view complete monthly NICS reports. NSSF members may access historical monthly NICS reports by logging into the members-only section of www.nssf.org.

  • KNIFE RIGHTS LOBBY MAKING STRIDES . . . Knife advocates are hoping that a recent move by Arizona legislators to end knife restrictions will lead more states to take up the cause. "Arizona is now the model when it comes to knives," said Arizona lobbyist Todd Rathner. "We're now going to be moving to other states, probably in the Rocky Mountains and the Southeast. There's probably half a dozen or more places that are ripe for this." Last year, the federal Customs and Border Protection agency issued a proposal that would have reclassified many pocketknives and pocket tools as switchblades and thus made them illegal for import or sale across state lines. Congress, following a strong grassroots campaign by the American Knife and Tool Institute -- an effort supported by NSSF -- intervened and blocked the change. Read more.

  • N.J. COURTS UPHOLD BEAR SEASON, WHICH BEGINS TODAY . . . A New Jersey Supreme Court Justice refused Saturday to block the state's first bear hunt in five years, which was slated to begin today. Justice Edwin Stern turned down the request in an emergency order a day after an appeals court refused to block the hunt.

SHOT Show

  • SIX WEEKS TO GO . . . Believe it or not, NSSF's 2011 SHOT Show is just over a month away. The industry's annual main event returns to Las Vegas Jan. 18-21 at the Sands Expo & Convention Center. If you haven't already done so, get registered, make travel plans, order tickets to the annual State of the Industry Dinner presented by Outdoor Channel, register for SHOT Show University and more at shotshow.org.

Jobs


NSSF's Mission

"To promote, protect and preserve hunting and the shooting sports."

Click here to visit the NSSF Web site and see how we accomplish this mission.

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COPYRIGHT © 2010 by National Shooting Sports Foundation, Inc. Permission is granted for broadcast, publication, retransmission to e-mail lists, Web sites or any other copying or storage, in any medium, online or not, if 1) the text is forwarded in its entirety, including this paragraph, and 2) no fee is charged. "Bullet Points®," "National Shooting Sports Foundation®," "NSSF®," and all other trade names, trademarks, service marks, logos and images of the National Shooting Sports Foundation appearing in this publication are the sole property of the Foundation and may not be used without the Foundation's prior express written permission. All other trade names, trademarks, service marks, logos and images appearing in this publication are trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective owners.

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