Las Vegas, Nevada August 31-September 2, 2012 Survival Expo and Gun Show AAR

[Prone to Knit]

Thanks to everyone that helped at the 2012 Survival Expo and Gun Show August 31 - September 2 in Las Vegas, Nevada.

Several people were able to work all 3 days (plus setting up) and others worked 1-2 days.  The Nevada instructors really worked this hard.  Thanks to RangeRat, SniperCat, TrebleShooter, VegasCaveman, Persistent_1, Xeyed and Steven.

Appreciation also goes out to Buzz from Utah and Fred.  An extra big thanks goes to MtnManPrepper who was able to get us into this show with a 20' x 70' space donated to us. We also had stage time to tell our stories. He traveled from Colorado to work the entire event.

Oneshot_onehole and I were also there but these shows ONLY work because of the instructors that volunteer to help. It's a great opportunity to build interest in your area.

Thank you to RangeRat and SniperCat for opening up their home to Buzz and Fred.

Attendance was much lower than the expo owners promoted.  Despite that, we made the best of it with several great things coming out of it.  Squeezing lemons, right?

Besides handing out tri-folds and the free Essential Liberty booklets donated to us from Patriot Post, as well as letting people take their Redcoats home after shooting pellets, many small flyers were handed out regarding the shoots being held the rest of the year within several hundred miles of Las Vegas. Thanks to the Nevada crew for putting that together. Though people come from long distances, a huge percentage will be from a fairly local area. Having some kind of a flyer telling of the shoots and scheduled LibrarySeeds is critical.

The pellet line, as always, was very popular. The organizers told everyone coming in the door with kids aged 15 and younger that they needed to go to the Appleseed booth to shoot pellet guns. Our best estimate is that approximately 400 people shot at the 6 pellet-gun line.

After the expo, the owners told us that as people left they said the highlight was the pellet range - it gave the kids and the families something to do and they liked our message.

Several people came back multiple times and spent quite a bit of time with us expressing interest in becoming instructors. Many asked about attending a shoot.  Connections were built with a local range.

We don't just allow kids to shoot. Adults love it, too. Some celebrities showed up and shot with us.  We'll ask Buzz to post pictures here. They would like to help promote us, loving our message. We'll follow up with that.

Kim