Gun industry gathers near site of Vegas massacre

Annual trade show comes months after mass shooting

The gun industry is holding its biggest annual trade show this week just a few kilometres from the site where a gunman slaughtered 58 concertgoers outside his highrise Las Vegas hotel room in October using a display case worth of weapons, many of them fitted with bump stocks that enabled them to mimic fully automatic fire.

What exactly will be among the thousands of products crammed into the exhibition spaces at the National Shooting Sports Foundation’s SHOT Show convention, running from Tuesday through Friday, will be a bit of a mystery, shielded from the public and, this year, members of the general-interest media.

One thing is known: Slide Fire, the leading manufacturer of bump stocks, a once-obscure product that attracted intense attention in the aftermath of the deadliest mass shooting in modern U.S. history, won’t be among the exhibitors.

The Texas-based company hasn’t said why it’s not on the roster of more than1,700 exhibitors, although it was last year. It didn’t return messages seeking comment.

“From purely a public relations standpoint, it wouldn’t be a surprise at all if bump stocks just sort of disappeared this year,” said Robert Spitzer, chairperson of political science at the State University of New York at Cortland and an expert on firearms and the Second Amendment. “That’s a PR no-brainer.” SHOT Show has been held for 40 years, half that time in Las Vegas, and this year’s gathering was scheduled well before the bloodshed last fall. It will have some 20 kilometres of aisles featuring products from more than 1,700 companies. More than 65,000 visitors are expected.