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As Gun Industry Trade Show Kicks Off, Students Demand Action Announces Comprehensive Demands for Firearms Industry Accountability and Reform

1.17.2023

LAS VEGAS — Today, Students Demand Action, a grassroots network of Everytown for Gun Safety, launched a series of comprehensive demands of the firearms industry to adopt responsible business practices. The announcement of the demands comes as the National Shooting Sports Foundation (NSSF)’s annual trade show, the SHOT Show, begins today in Las Vegas, held just two miles from the site of the deadliest mass shooting in modern American history. 

Students Demand Action volunteers will be bringing these demands directly to the firearms industry this week in Las Vegas. As members of the industry arrived, they were greeted by billboards on their way from the airport to hotels that highlighted how guns are the number one killer of children and teens in the United States. Additionally, Everytown for Gun Safety Support Fund and Students Demand Action have placed digital ads that are targeted to the Las Vegas area, mobile billboards will be driving around the convention site, and additional in-person activations are planned for this week to ensure that the gun industry can’t ignore these demands. 

“Every major industry in this country has to be held accountable, and the gun industry shouldn’t get special treatment,” said Zack Maaieh, a student at Vanderbilt University and a volunteer with Students Demand Action from Ohio. “We’re tired of industry executives getting rich off of this crisis while our generation pays the price with our lives. We deserve better, and we’re going right to the source to demand it.”

“Guns are now the number one killer of American kids and teens, but the gun industry’s number one priority remains racking up profits — with little concern for public safety,” said Nick Suplina, senior vice president for law and policy at Everytown for Gun Safety. “As the firearm industry converges on Vegas, we’re blanketing the city with reminders of the devastating cost of their refusal to help solve America’s gun violence crisis.”

This year, volunteers and gun violence survivors with Students Demand Action are demanding that the gun industry take common sense steps to keep guns out of the hands of criminals by securing their supply chains and refusing to work with bad dealers, market their products responsibly and honestly, stop making AR-15s and other assault weapons that use high-capacity magazines, and innovate to make guns safer rather than more deadly. The full list of comprehensive demands can be found here.

Last week, Everytown Support Fund released a new report cataloging the role that NSSF plays as a front group for the nation’s firearms industry, including gun makers and sellers at every level. 

Additionally, Everytown Law has filed a number of new lawsuits challenging alleged reckless practices by gun industry companies, including representing survivors of the shootings in Uvalde and Highland Park in lawsuits against the gun manufacturers and gun stores involved. 

To speak with a Students Demand Action volunteer who is on the ground in Las Vegas this week, or with an Everytown expert about the role of the NSSF and the firearms industry, do not hesitate to reach out.