2026 SHOT Show
After-Action Report
Belt-tightening, Suppressors — And a Knife Fight?
The 2026 SHOT Show in Las Vegas reflected the greater firearms industry downturn,
but was still one of the biggest trade shows in the U.S.
Your Humble Correspondent has just returned from what was — inexplicably — my 27th consecutive SHOT Show. Not sure how I racked up over a quarter century of show attendance despite considering myself a professional youngster, but here we are.
Personally, I still maintain the 2001 New Orleans show was the high-water mark, though I did permanent damage to my liver, and there remains an unresolved mystery involving a voodoo shop on Tchoupitoulas Street. But that’s another story.
The show floor, usually shoulder-to-shoulder, was — pleasantly — a bit more open this year though in fairness,
this photo was taken Friday morning when lots of folks had flown the coop early to beat massive U.S. snowstorm “Fern.”
Las Vegas this year? Different vibe. Muted. One industry veteran summed it up succinctly:
“Boring-est SHOT Show ever. Nothing but suppressors and AR-15s.”
He wasn’t wrong. Well, mostly. Read on …
Gun & Knife Show?
Breaking News: one point needs clarification — nobody was “stabbed at SHOT Show.” A stabbing did occur near the Starbucks just outside the SHOT Show floor at approximately 6:30 p.m. on Thursday, Jan. 22, after the show had officially closed for the day.
According to multiple online posts from claimed witnesses, two men — allegedly brothers — were involved in a fight, during which one stabbed the other in the upper arm. Off-duty medics immediately applied a tourniquet, and there has been no credible dispute of those basic facts so far.
If you like big-boy toys, the SHOT Show is the place to go.
More importantly, there is no indication the individuals had attended SHOT Show or were affiliated with the firearms industry. The location — outside the Summit Theater, less than 50 yards from the casino, in a publicly accessible area — means proximity alone proves nothing. What is notable is that medically-trained members of the gun industry immediately rendered aid, a small but telling detail that got lost in the sloppy headlines.
Moving past the “stabby” brawlers, SHOT Show remains one of the top 10 trade shows in the United States. The event sprawls across roughly 830,000 square feet — about 19 acres — of exhibit space, with an estimated 13.9 miles of aisles winding through it. Attendance hovers around 54,000 people from 126 countries, including approximately 2,500 members of the outdoor media. In short, even in a “down” year, SHOT is still a massive undertaking by any reasonable standard, which makes the tonal shift this year all the more noticeable.
Year of the Suppressor
If 2025 had a theme, it was suppressors — everyone has one, and there’s a full-on race to the bottom to see how cheaply they can be sold. Innovation wasn’t absent, but it was incremental. Fewer “Holy heck, look at this” moments and more “Here’s ours, but $50 cheaper.”
The Gang’s All Here: The FMG editors preparing for a livestream video podcast from high atop the Umarex booth at last year’s show.
(Front L-R) Erick Gelhaus, Brent T. Wheat, Tom McHale.
Booths were thinner on staff, a clear sign of budget cuts and belt-tightening. Attendance was touted as “record,” but the show floor felt lighter, especially in the press room. I saw the usual suspects — career journalists working for established brands — but less of the semi-pro, lone-wolf blogger types. In my estimation, the influencer gold rush appears to be officially over.
Consolidation
Marketing folks were candid: the influencer craze has run its course. Companies now support dependable, professional podcasts and YouTube channels that can actually deliver — predictably and responsibly. Like everything else in the industry, the big names get bigger, the small get squeezed, and the middle fights to survive.
This consolidation showed up everywhere: fewer parties, fewer off-site events, less booth swag and fewer celebrity appearances. Moreover, there were way fewer “influencers” wandering around with cameras and entitlement.
(L-R) Amy Grant and Suzi Huntington get "tacti-cool" at SHOT Show.
Even by the time-honored “cleavage meter” — the amount of female eye candy deployed in booths — the show was noticeably dialed back. Whether that’s cultural evolution or simple cost control is open to debate, but the needle definitely moved back toward “reserved.”
China Was Everywhere
One thing was up: Chinese manufacturers of optics, optics and more optics. One friend in the business told me flatly:
“Yeah, they’re our supplier — and they’re selling here too, under a different name.”
That’s not a warning sign; it’s a blinking red light. I did spot one booth for the “Happy Gun Company,” which suggests they might consider hiring an English speaker before designing their U.S. marketing strategy next year.
At SHOT Show Industry Day at the Range you can shoot all sorts of guns, for instance a gatling gun,
as Brent did a few years ago. The event this year was noticeably smaller.
Industry Day: Shrinking and Fragmented
SHOT Show Industry Day at the Range (aka “Media Day” where the assembled hacks get a chance to shoot the wares) was about a third smaller, and the morning crowd was nearly nonexistent. Many major exhibitors either bailed entirely or ran their own off-site range days. The reason is simple: cost and chaos.
Renting space from NSSF is brutally expensive, and the logistical confusion isn’t helping. There’s growing backlash clearly visible, and if NSSF doesn’t seriously reconsider pricing and structure, that pressure is only going to increase.
Vegas itself didn’t help. Rooms, food, transportation, booth space — it’s all gotten too expensive. Multiple exhibitors told me flat-out that Las Vegas may no longer make sense.
A Bright Spot: Skinner Sights
A special shout-out to Andy and Sheila Larsson of Skinner Sights, who host what might be the most exclusive and authentic event at SHOT: the “Real-Deal, Been There, Done That” breakfast.
Las Vegas has gotten too pricey and overblown — where else can you pick up
both takeout sushi and razors while at the drugstore?
Somehow, I’ve been lucky enough to make the guest list the past two years. It’s a literal who’s who of the firearms industry — CEOs, trainers, long-time personalities, and even governors. I’m still giddy every time I walk in, like a kid finally being allowed to sit at the grown-ups’ table on Thanksgiving.
At the very first Skinner breakfast over a decade ago, Roy Huntington famously remarked:
“If a meteor hit this room, it would wipe out the majority of the gun writing industry.”
This year, the Governor of Montana attended — and despite being a politician, he seemed like a genuinely decent human who actually hunts and cares about the Second Amendment. I also informed Andy that my bucket-list goal is to convince Roy to attend the 2027 SHOT Show, so consider this paragraph the opening salvo of the write-in campaign.
The "tactical" side of SHOT didn’t shrink this and one industry veteran commented,
“Boring-est SHOT Show ever. Nothing but suppressors and AR-15s.”
Bottom Line
The industry is down — but certainly not out. This year forced some uncomfortable introspection, and while job losses are never good news, the correction itself may be healthy. Excess is being trimmed. Fantasy marketing is being replaced by measurable results. Reality has returned.
SHOT 2026 wasn’t flashy. It wasn’t wild. It wasn’t New Orleans in 2001.
But it was honest — and sometimes, that’s exactly what an industry needs.
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