The NRA Annual Meeting was held this year on April 14-16, 2023 In Indianapolis. There is no cost to attend for NRA members. Approximately 70,000 NRA members were expected to attend. The venue was the Indiana Convention Center, a large and well-appointed facility. Midway USA was the official sponsor of the Annual Meeting. There was a wide variety of educational opportunities in addition to the “14 acres of Guns and Gear” on display. Despite being attended by many thousands of people carrying firearms both concealed and openly, there were no mass shootings at the event.

Before even entering the venue, a truck was observed with large LED signs on its sides was seen circling the building. The signs were various anti-NRA disinformation slogans targeted at both the general public and NRA members. This truck circled the Convention Center continuously all three days of the Meeting.

Day 1

Interesting items observed on Friday were:

• AimCam, a new integrated camera and shooting glasses system that allows video of what the shooter sees through the master eye vis-à-vis images captured from slightly off-center.
• The Savage Arms Stance, a microcompact 9mm pistol for concealed carry.
• A Kel-tec slimline 9mm pistol.
• Wilderness Tactical renovation of the Renegade ankle holster. WT also had an in the pocket double pouch, which could be used for two spare magazines or a magazine and small flashlight.
• A wide variety of offerings by Taurus USA. Caleb Giddings, the Taurus Marketing Manager and “degenerate revolver enthusiast,” stated that he has fired over 1,000 rounds through several Taurus Model 82s in practice and competition without failures. One of the improvements Taurus has made to the 82 is to capture the trigger return spring and eliminate the rebound slide. This removes one frictional component of the trigger action and improves the feel and weight of the trigger press. Taurus also had compact and full size versions of the TX22, new .22 Long Rifle pistol that Taurus states can be dry fired without damage.

In addition to the displays of guns and gear, there were continuous educational offerings on all three days of the meeting. https://s15.a2zinc.net/clients/NRA/nraam2023/Public/Sessions.aspx?ID=4750 The topics ranged from generally gun related topics, Dr. John R. Lott’s Gun Control Myths as an example, to theme focused classes such as Lessons Learned From Analyzing 40,000+ Real Gunfights by John Correia of Active Self Protection.

“Lessons Learned from Analyzing 40,000+ Real Gunfights [delved] into the top lessons gleaned from analyzing tens of thousands of actual defensive incidents caught on surveillance video by the national SME in that arena. Real-life incidents will be viewed and analyzed in class to highlight these lessons learned.” was the program description.

An overview of Lessons Learned from Analyzing 40,000+ Real Gunfights will be my next post.