One of the great blessings of what I do, and the fact I travel for work, means I am often in places where I can check out the local gun stores. I’ll wager many of you reading this have enjoyed a similar experience.
You’ve probably walked into a good gun shop and before you ever bring an item to the counter, you feel at home, like this isn’t just a transaction. It feels like a multi-year relationship, even if it is your first time through that door. That's not an accident, and it's not something an online marketplace or website can fake.
Over the years, I’ve heard plenty of people talk about the distribution chain like it's just boxes moving from Point A to Point B – manufacturer to distributor to retailer to customer. And, while technically true, it jumps right past the fact that wholesale distribution involves a lot of people, talent, and resources. And specifically, this type of thinking dramatically misses the mark on a crucial aspect of the chain… the brick-and-mortar retail stores.
Honestly, retailers are the last, best connection between everything built in our industry and the people we build it for. They're behind the counter when a nervous first-time buyer walks in not knowing a safety from a slide release, taking real time to teach, to fit a gun to a user, to answer every question. You can't put that on a spec sheet or ship it in a box and you certainly can’t get that from an online transaction.
And that's the whole difference, isn't it? We've become a society that wants everything now… two-day shipping, one-click checkout, a box on the porch before we've even thought it through. Technology helps us get things faster than ever. That’s a nice convenience. But fast is not the same as right. Order a gun online and what arrives may or may not match the photo you saw, or the length of pull may simply not work for you. Order a holster and it might not fit your gun, or your body, or the way you carry. Nobody on the other end of that screen has held both in their hands. It's impersonal by design – and when it's wrong, you're boxing it back up and waiting a week or more to find out if the next one fits any better.
Walk into your local shop with that same problem, and somebody looks you over and hands you the right thing the first time – or takes the wrong one back with no problem. Buying local isn't a slogan; it's the difference between hoping you got it right and being pretty darn sure you did.
Folks, here’s the part that ought to keep us up at night: we're losing these gun stores, and not slowly. According to ATF's own commerce data, the number of retail dealers and pawnbrokers licensed to sell firearms has dropped more than 10 percent in just the last five years, with dealer counts falling every single year since 2016. Gun shops that anchored their towns for two or three generations are closing their doors, and once they're gone, they do not come back. Decades of history, ability and expertise walks out with the owner and retires with him. The regulations and the competition with online-only sellers make owning and running a Main Street gun shop exceptionally challenging. And let’s be real, it’s hard to build a sustainable and long-term business on transfer fees alone.
Furthermore, these Main Street businesses are woven into their communities in ways that go past firearms entirely. They sponsor the Little League team. They donate to the fire department's raffle. They show up to the 4-H shoot, hire the local kid for his first job, keep the lights on downtown when half the block's gone dark. When a retailer folds, the town doesn't just lose a place to buy a rifle… it loses jobs, a sponsor, a piece of its identity, and a place to walk in when something needs fixing, fitting, or returning. I suppose to some, this sounds like just nostalgia talking. But it’s my belief this is a serious concern, and all of us should be paying attention.
We are stronger together. This industry needs to stand together. If we keep squeezing margins, keep chasing direct-to-consumer shortcuts, keep treating the local shop like a formality instead of the foundation, then we shouldn't be surprised when it cracks, one shop at a time, until there's nowhere left to walk into.
If we don't protect the retailers, we won't just lose a key part of the sales channel, we will lose the front porch of this whole industry. And once the light goes out, there's no algorithm, no website, and no distributor alive who can easily turn it back on.
As a final note… I wanted to let you all know I’m very much looking forward to seeing you in Phoenix next month. We’ve got a great show planned and I know many of you are making the trip out west. We haven’t been out there with our Expo for quite some time, so I’m hoping this will only be our first trip back. If you have any last minute needs, or have questions about anything, please don’t hesitate to let us know.
We’re excited to see how you like our new show format, moved up a day for everyone’s convenience and ease of travel, particularly since we’re out west. Keep us posted on what you think. Until then, take care and we’ll see you in Phoenix!
Until next time,
Kenyon Gleason
NASGW President