The annual Shooting, Hunting and Outdoor Trade (SHOT) Show in Las Vegas is the largest and most comprehensive trade show for people affiliated with professional organizations involved with shooting sports, hunting and/or law enforcement.
Recently, the Exchange Office of the Inspector General sent two IG associates to the show for the first time. Assistant Inspectors General Chenelle Husband and Steve Saucedo represented the Exchange at this year’s show in Las Vegas.
“IG was interested in what the show had to offer in terms of training we could get from the experience, and in the networking opportunities,” Saucedo said.
Husband added that attending the show could help the IG’s office with its annual firearms inspections.
“This was an opportunity for us to get even smarter on regulations regarding firearms,” she said. “Because firearms regulations change from the federal level to the state level, we wanted to continue our education to make sure that we’re always in compliance with those regulations.”
Of particular interest was SHOT University, a which covered customer communication, used firearms, new shooters, operations, federal regulation compliance, marketing and workforce development.
“We learned a lot about compliance,” Saucedo said. “It wasn’t just about us attending. Since we were the only two IG team members attending, we wanted to take back as much as we could from each one of the classes. We took good notes and shared them with the team.”
Husband and Saucedo weren’t the only associates to attend the show. Buyer Eric Vargus also attended, as did Amber Kellett, Program Specialist with the Exchange’s firearms compliance team. Kellett invited Husband and Saucedo to a one-on-one meeting with several members of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF).
During the meeting, personnel reviewed the Exchange’s ATF compliance performance from last year and both sides were able to ask and answer questions.
“We were able to have a conversation about how the Exchange is doing overall with ATF compliance, opportunities for improvement, and discuss future collaborations with the ATF to improve efficiencies,” Kellett said. “The Store Operations and IG partnership has strengthened the firearms compliance program to help protect the Exchange benefit for our valued customers.”
The OIG serves through four functions: assist; inspect;investigate; and teach and train. The inspect function includes inspecting firearms counters within the Exchange to ensure that all locations are operating in compliance with company policy, as well as within federal and state regulations.
“We’re more confident that our stores are doing the right things after we learned about how the ATF do their inspections,” Husband said. “It was good to know that our stores are going above and beyond what ATF is recommending.”
Saucedo said that it’s important and useful for OIG associates to keep abreast of regulations and programs that govern the lawful transfer of firearms. Those include regulations set forth by the ATF and programs such as the National Instant Criminal Background Check System (NICS) operated by the Federal Bureau of Investigation.
Additionally, many retailers across the industry (including the Exchange) are shifting from a paper-based documentation system to an electronic-based system to capture the lawful sales of firearms. It is equally important for OIG associates to become familiar with the software that the Exchange will use.
Husband and Saucedo also had the opportunity to speak and visit with numerous vendors, including the software vendor the Exchange has decided to partner with for electronic documentation involving the sale of firearms.
“There’s so much square footage there for anyone who has a firearms-related job—not only firearms but hunting, outdoor equipment—all those vendors are set up on all this floor space,” Saucedo said. “There are so many new and different items, things that are new to the industry. It would be good for folks who have daily interaction with the customers to see what’s new.”
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