Author: Derek

This was my first NRAAM. When I was there Friday, I kept hearing from veteran AM-goers how busy it was. 

Apparently, Nashville had the second-highest attendance record, clocking in at 78,865.

Finally ran into someone I know who actually knows me. Which is surprising for a conference with 70,000 in attendance.

According to the guy at Next Level Training, the M&P SIRT is expected to come out in a few months. They’ll be selling the Pro Model only and it will probably retail for $375.

I wanted to get into the Mossberg booth again and play with their Blaze 47, but it was swamped. It may have had something to do with Colion Noir putting in an appearance at the time. 

Tried the Glock 43. It is too damn small for my hands, but yeah, they’ll sell a metric shit ton of those little things. And just about every holster maker is advertising that they have something for the new Glock.

I should probably get back up and start perusing again. I haven’t broken my trip budget yet.

I had some high expectations for this class based on the reviews from those who attended last year at Indy.

My expectations were met and exceeded. 

I learned a lot, but I also learned how much I knew was fecking worthless, or worse, could let someone die. 

Like so much of our world, the first part was to have a plan – know what to do in case of emergency. Where’s the first aid kit? What needs to be in the first aid kit? Is there an AED available if someone’s heart stops? 

We learned how to do chest compressions and work with an AED. Guess what? CPR has changed since I was first introduced to it in high school some two decades ago. For a layperson, forget breathing into the person and focus on chest compressions and the AED.

We learned how and when to apply a tourniquet. First, they aren’t as horrific as medical legend claims. Second, I will say applying a tourniquet one-handed can be a bitch.

Finally, Lawdog had a segment on the psychological and physiological effects of “critical stress.” 

Kelly said he wants to do this again at next year’s NRAAM in Louisville. I can’t recommend this enough for anyone. Well worth the price of admission. 

1. Gave some to Knife Rights. They’ve been fighting the good fight against asinine knife laws.

2. Streamlight – Bought their big Seige lantern (which means I need to go get some D-cells) and their little Seige lantern. Also picked up another of their Styluses. I like the little lights because they give off enough light and I can hand them off to others if necessary.

3. Nifty little beanie from Emerson.

When KRISS put out their carbine, they could have opted for the long barrel look like FN did for their PS90. Instead, they made it look like a suppressor, which was just frickin’ cool. Then I saw their Gen II:

I do love that blocky fake silencer.

I like the look of HK’s G36 line. It just looks sleek and efficient. Walther had a .22 version at their booth. (They also had some AR-styles, but I’ve already got one of those.

Pyramid had some wicked looking airguns: