May 13, 2020

Firearm Industry Reopening Guidance

By John McNamara, NSSF Senior Director, Retail & Range Services

Though the majority of our industry members have been allowed to continue daily operations through the progression of state stay-at-home orders, many of those businesses have or were required to restrict business hours, reduce in-store and on-range capacities and limit on-hand staff and staff/customer interactions. Others, especially combination indoor range/retail facilities, chose or were ordered to close down the range side of their businesses while following altered business models on the retail side.

Please Wear Mask and Keep Distance Today, states across the country are beginning to relax their stay-at-home orders and businesses are reopening their doors. However, those openings, including those for manufacturers, distributors, retailers and ranges in our industry, will be operating under an evolving list of suggestions and governmental orders in the interest of improving the current public health situation.

NSSF recently hosted a webinar, “Retail and Indoor Range Operating Tactics in the COVID-19 Era,” that included a comprehensive list of guidance and best practices. (The full webinar presentation is now available free and only to NSSF members as a new SHOT University Online seminar.) That list is now available to all industry members on NSSF’s COVID-19 resources page.

In addition, the National Retail Federation recently issued its “Operation Open Doors Checklist.” This document contains a wealth of insightful recommendations primarily for customer-facing businesses, but the breadth of information included therein will benefit any business with multiple employees.

Not all recommendations in these two resources will apply to or be realizable by all businesses in the firearm industry. NSSF strongly recommends that each of our industry members, regardless their current state of operation, review both resources and, along with state-level and CDC (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention) guidance, create a formal reopening guidance plan that can be implemented across all levels of employment and best suits individual business models.