From Daily Kos: The Trump administration hopes that America's hunters and fishermen can be played for fools
By DARTAGNAN
Over the first nine days of February, thousands of hunters, fishermen, gun aficionados, and other outdoor sports enthusiasts poured into an annual central Pennsylvania event: the Great American Outdoor Show. Prominently sponsored by the National Rifle Association, this sprawling exhibition features high-power firearms showcased by hundreds of national and international vendors—along with, to a lesser degree, standard hunting rifles, bowhunting gear, fishing tackle, and backwoods outfitting—and is explicitly billed by the NRA as celebrating “hunting, fishing, and outdoor traditions treasured by millions of Americans and their families.”
As the child of parents who both hunted and fished, I began attending this outdoor sportsmen’s show in the 1970s, when it was known as the Eastern Sports and Outdoor Show and when the NRA was still an organization primarily dedicated to actual hunters. That annual exhibition, which ran from 1956 to 2013, was one of the largest of its kind in North America, contributing substantially to the local economy in Harrisburg. As someone who grew up in central Pennsylvania, I was lucky to be able to attend it year after year. But in 2013, in reaction to the rising epidemic of mass shootings, the event’s promoter and organizer, Reed Promotions, announced that it would no longer permit “modern sports rifles” (colloquially known as “assault weapons”) to be exhibited there. Because the wholesale elimination of assault rifles from the show would significantly impact its attendance, hundreds of vendors promptly dropped out, forcing the postponement (and likely cancellation) of the show.