The 2016 SHOT Show State of the Industry address (VIDEO)

“We have to face the fact that our industry is being blamed, and attacked, and pilloried unfairly by politicians, media and agenda-driven social engineers,” said National Shooting Sports Foundation President and CEO Steve Sanetti.

The address, given in Las Vegas at the 38th Annual Shooting, Hunting, Outdoor Trade show last week, highlighted the growth of both the industry and the trade group while crime and gun accidents have declined– but warned of election year anti-gun hysteria ahead in coming months.

“Those who exploit tragedies and attack us, either for their own political ends or for an understandable desire to make sense out of senseless acts, make no pretense about their goals,” said Sanetti. “So this, in turn, forces us to respond—to reply to deliberate and ignorant falsehoods with the truth, and to educate the public using all means at our disposal.”

Sanetti went on to point out the NSSF’s programs that quietly go on behind the scenes such as FixNICS, Project Childsafe and the anti-straw buyer Don’t Lie for the Other Guy campaigns before circling back around to warn of the looming election cycle.

“We think of the upcoming elections as a Presidential election. Indeed it is; but it is so much more,” Sanetti said. “This election is about your entire government, right down to the local level, which ultimately will determine the courses of all our lives, our industry, and the way of life we treasure.”

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