Although I have only been at SHOT for a few days, I have found myself indebted to a number of bloggers, writers, on-air personalities, and so on, most of whom have refused even the slightest offer of repayment. First and foremost, the awesome Rob Curtis of GearScout. The incredibly helpful Jeff from Gunblog. The wonderful and capable Natalie of Girl’s Guide to Guns, and her boyfriend. The stunning (and brilliant) Nora of TacticalGear.com.
I’m not sure how I’ll repay them for the rides, advice, tips, pro-tips, meals, drinks, and so on, but they are all genuinely great folks, with the exception of the tremendously untremendous Rob Curtis, the suspicious-looking Jeff, the dumb blonde Natalie, and the underachieving Nora.
I would also like to thank the incredible Lisa of Flashbang Holsters (Mr. Lisa – hold on to her tight), the name-forgotten Delta Arms gunsmith who paid for my $30 hamburger and shake, Mauro of Technoframes for letting me tear it up in his Z06 and being an all-around awesome Italian mountain man, the unflinching Aissa who did not slap me after I made a comment about women over 35 – not knowing that she was over 40 – Angela for looking like the meeting of an Olympic athlete and a supermodel – and for not stabbing me after I asked if she had gained weight since I last saw her, Stickman for the photos of herself in an Arc’teryx thong, Dave at Elzetta for not being upset that I’ve had one of his lights for years without reviewing it, Shane at Multitasker for the travel advice, tool steel, and car talk, the NSW dude for the 300BLK info, D for the room with the view, Annie for making my heart go pitter-patter because she can explain the difference between cut and button rifling better than I can, Jim at Deliberate Dynamics for the 300BLK stuff, the cute “barista” for the extra cookie, the Vietnam-era Navy Corpsman I dined with who worked for a year in the burn ward – sir, I could never do what you did, Trijicon for not making anything related to zombies…
If I’ve forgotten anyone, I apologize, and blame it on IEDs causing memory loss. You know who you are, you know what you did out of kindness, and I will repay you, in one way or another.
ESPECIALLY Trijicon, for not making zombie stuff!!
True that!
But, as the GM of my store said to me this morning when I brought up Zombie stuff in general and the Leupold VX-R Zombie scope I had seen at SHOT in particular; it may be a sign of how hard things are in the industry, that so many manufacturer’s are jumping on the Zombie wagon with reckless abandon.
Sales are sales after all.
Zombie is the new “tactical” lol.
Excellent “Blazing Saddles” reference.
While I really can’t get behind uselessly branded products, I would point out that not everything with “zombie” in the name is bad.
You might have heard of Zombie Squad, and while the concept behind it is pretty much a gimmick, it is a useful gimmick to get people involved in local chapters that do more than sit around and chat about Max Brooks novels. Some people wouldn’t get disaster preparedness training were it not for their local Zombie Squad chapter – training that can only be helpful. Some parts of the country see terrible floods, tornadoes, or hurricanes and the same type of training that Zombie Squad chapters provide is equally applicable to these situations. “Natural disaster preparedness” has less glamour than “zombie breakout preparedness”, but the end result is the same.
Granted, its the same type of training I received as a CLS in the Army (which is only slightly more advanced than the basic first-aid training almost all soldiers receive) but not everyone has had the military experience.
I’m not a member, just pointing out how the creative branding of social groups can be used for good despite promulgating the stupid concept of gun ownership as a hedge against zombie outbreaks.
Stickman is a woman?
It was awesome to meet you! Hopefully, we can talk longer next time.