Handwaving Freakoutery at SHOT Show 2020
The week of January 20th, Handwaving Freakoutery (HWFO / B.J. Campbell) attended SHOT Show 2020 with the Open Source Defense group, meeting with manufacturers, media outlets, and gun culture celebrities to exchange ideas, thoughts, and make connections for the future of writing on both HWFO and OSD. The week at the world’s largest industry only gun convention was very draining, and very productive. As I sat down to gather my thoughts on the experience, I figured it might be fun to publish them.
Open Source Defense’s registration this year was as a “research firm” instead of a media firm, owing to what we’ll call “general registration fuckery,” which made for some interesting conversations in the smoking area. Got some sideways looks initially. I introduced myself as a mathematician. The sideways looks got more obtuse. Then, the pitch.
The Pitch
Everyone at SHOT has an elevator pitch. Say everything you’re about in two minutes or less, bombard the people around you, exchange business cards, shake hands, and then fish out your bottle of Purell to try and avoid contracting the SHOT Plague. Phrased in that way it sounds horrible, but in truth it’s basically no different than any other business networking meeting, just larger, and more potentially prone to contact borne diseases from across the country. Common Sense Germ…
