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January 26, 2024
Building Momentum: NSSF Governors’ Forum Highlights Efforts to Fight for Firearm Industry
By Matt Manda
The 2024 SHOT Show® welcomed back seven governors to the stage for the 3rd Annual Governors’ Forum. A jam packed room was filled with an audience keen on listening to what the governors had to say about their efforts to fight for the Second Amendment and to protect and promote the firearm industry in each of their respective states.
Nevada Gov. Joe Lombardo, Montana Gov. Greg Gianforte, Arkansas Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders, Nebraska Gov. Jim Pillen, Wyoming Gov. Mark Gordon, Idaho Gov. Brad Little and Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp all joined the stage again – several as returning guests – and NSSF’s Larry Keane guided the conversation.
For more than an hour, the governors spoke about the legislative climate in their states with 2024 legislative sessions kicking off and what their priorities are. Also discussed were the Biden administration’s attacks on the lawful firearm industry through executive overreach and pursuing punishment through lawfare, seeking to suffocate and bankrupt the already highly-regulated industry.
Other topics included banking services and financial discrimination against firearm manufacturers, distributors and retailers and – while Congress considers federal legislation to prohibit such discrimination – the critical importance of passing, and the governors signing into law, state-level protections like the Firearm Industry Nondiscrimination Act (FIND Act) as well as new protections to block credit card companies from implementing a Merchant Category Code (MCC) to tracking law-abiding Americans’ firearm-related purchases.
Every governor also spoke about the importance of job recruitment and growing their state’s respective economy by attracting firearm businesses from states hostile to the firearm industry and Second Amendment rights to more welcoming and firearm-friendly terrain. There have been several major moves in the past few years with businesses announcing significant new investments and expansions in the states represented on stage.
Every governor had plenty to say, there were plenty of laughs and following a short audience question and answer session at the end, if was clear the forum was yet again a huge success.
Watch the full 2024 NSSF Governors’ Forum here.
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