NRA Takes Over Harrisburg Sportsmen’s Show
The NRA just helped deal a one-two economic punch to anti-gunners today–we’re talking tens of millions of dollars worth of economic punches.
In case you missed it back in January, Reed Exhibitions sponsored the Eastern Sport & Outdoor Show (ESOS) in Harrisburg every year and managed to generate upwards of $74 million in a local economic impact and in support of the non-profits that raise money and sign up memberships at the ESOS. However, Reed suddenly banned the display of modern sporting rifles this year and the backlash of their attack on our community cost them so many vendors and customer refund requests that they had to “postpone” the show. The show has never been rescheduled by the company and the entire situation was handled so poorly by Reed that some lawmakers publicly indicated that they hoped Reed would never be allowed to host the show again.
All of that meant that Harrisburg-area tourism groups and Farm Show Complex organizers went shopping for a new host to a sporting show for the region. Conveniently, NRA already hosts a smaller scale show just 70 miles down the road in Maryland right around the same time of year.
It was announced today that NRA has been selected as the vendor to run a much larger scale Great American Outdoor Show in Harrisburg during the traditional time of the ESOS going forward. NRA members who attended the NRA Annual Meeting & Exhibits in Pittsburgh in 2004 or 2011 know that the organization has great experience running massive shows in Pennsylvania. We look forward to the addition of this annual show drawing in gun owners from around the region.
Maryland, after pushing extreme anti-gun legislation, now loses the economic impact of that show and Pennsylvania gets a new vendor for the sportsmen’s show that doesn’t turn on the hunters & shooters who support the show. To top it off, Reed forever loses the multi-million dollar show they once hosted. Anti-gunners from Reed & the Maryland legislature lose big opportunities and Pennsylvania wins with a better exhibition host and added dollars into the economy.
