The Exhibit Hall doors opened this morning at the NRA’s 144th Annual Meetings & Exhibits. For the past few days workers have been hustling night and day to set up the large booths and exhibits. Today, industry reps and NRA Members get down to business in the convention center. This year the Show is hosted in at the Music City Center in Nashville, Tennessee. Appropriately, on Friday afternoon, show visitors were treated to an outdoor Country Music Jam.

Another Thursday highlight was the appearance of the “Gun Gurus”, the experts from the NRA Firearms Museum. Thursday afternoon, nearly 30 lucky individuals took the stage for a special spot on Outdoor Channel’s Gun Gurus. They brought with them historic and collectible firearms to be reviewed by the Gun Gurus. “It’s been a few year since we’ve held an evaluation at the Annual Meeting,” said NRA Museums Senior Curator Philip Schreier. “After seeing the firearms at this year’s event … it was well worth the wait.”

Big Show Requires a Big Effort
Hundreds of companies will showcase their products in Nashville. NRABlog.com editor Lars Dalseide explains what it takes to put on a show of this scale: “When members arrive here in Nashville for the NRA’s 144th Annual Meetings & Exhibits, most will make way for the famed Exhibit Hall. What they’re going to see is the finished product, but it takes a lot to get there.”

Lars notes: “The more impressive the booth the more time and manpower it takes to assemble. One to two to three days worth of carpeting and constructing and a good deal of sweat goes into the final product. Some are put together by the vendors and some by local crews here in Nashville. Either way, someone went through a great deal of effort to make it all possible.”