Industry Creativity and the GOA’s Inaugural GOALS Expo in Knoxville

The Gun Owners of America inaugural Gun Owners Advocacy and Leadership Summit this past weekend in Knoxville, Tennessee was similar — and different — from many other shows I’ve attended over the years. Like other shows, it was well-managed, ran smoothly and on schedule. Attendees I spoke with seemed satisfied with what they saw, heard and handled. That’s the good news.

The not-so-good news was the absence of the teeming crowds hoped for on Saturday. There were decent crowds, but nothing approaching the almost impassible aisles of other gun industry events.

That meant I could cover a lot of exhibition area in short order. I saw several interesting products from “known” companies, and some equally intriguing new items from companies essentially making their industry debut in Knoxville.

The new items I saw made pretty compelling cases for the fact that the suggestion that there is little, if any, innovation in the gun business might be because innovation and radical change are often used interchangeably. They are definitely different concepts, and the Firearms Innovation and Technology panel discussion I attended Saturday spoke to that, explaining that innovations in manufacturing and marketing are two different things entirely.

In manufacturing, for example, printed parts have the kind of innovative promise that injection molding had only a few years ago. In marketing, the addition of colors, checkering or any one of a dozen other “tweaks” are sometimes celebrated like something other than what it is: a different topping on the same ice cream cone. It’s the point where marketing departments blur the line between line expansion and innovation with their customers. It’s also one reason the panel members say the industry is often accused of not being particularly innovative.

Hyperbolic marketing to the contrary, not every new product announced is either innovative nor ground-breaking. Sometimes, it’s only a cosmetic change.

As one panel member put it, “‘grippier’ grips, front and backstrap checkering and greener green frames aren’t innovations, despite what the industry-wide marketing often says.”

In fact, some are iterative changes, usually planned and scheduled in the product development roadmap. The panel agreed that some were the direct result of customer feedback and desires.

Based on that panel discussion, new products in the exhibit hall represented solid examples of iterative changes, expansion of existing technologies, and at least one completely new (though probably not radical) product.

The iterative developments were most noticeable with MASP IndustriesTechnologies’ rifles and components. A longtime component manufacturer, MASP now offers their own Alpha and Bravo rifle platforms. Both include options for custom colors and finishes and MASP’s innovative components, including their ambidextrous Gen3 Throttle charging handles.

FosTech had one of the most radical looking components on the Knoxville expo floor. Heavy caliber rifles always get disproportionate amounts of attention, but a semi-auto .50 caliber sporting a 20-round drum magazine is an attraction.

It looks like what must have been a massive design project…but actually wasn’t. FosTech was actually able to use their drum magazine for 12 gauge shotguns, with some upsizing of the carrier, and created a magazine that adds serious capacity to one of the most powerful shoulder-fired rifles available.

According to FosTech, they’ve been told their magazine has “military applications.” That should make anyone on the other end of that muzzle nervous. The $1599.99 price tag, however, may concern .50 caliber semiautomatic rifle owners.

The product that got my attention just might prove the old saying “the pen is mightier than the sword.” Not because this sleek looking writing instrument comes with built-in literary abilities, but because the real business end of Liberty Manufacturing’s Pen Gun is exactly that: a .22 caliber single-shot firearm. As Liberty’s marketing material says, it provides “excellent writing performance with a kick whenever you need it.”

Fine design, whether it’s cars, planes, boats, automobiles, watches, or pens, when well-executed, is industrial art. And Liberty’s pen guns are sleek and sit well in the hand for writing. The .22 caliber gun hidden on the opposite end of the roller ball is also designed to be used at up close and personal distances. The video playing on their exhibit wall showed someone signing a document, then turning the pen into the proverbial sword and firing a round into a target that was only inches away.

While it may not be one of the nicest pen designs I’ve see-, I’m not sure about the gun portion. Granted, it’s described as being drop-safe with a trigger safety. It’s also not a simple process to fire. Under duress, the absence of fine muscle response might cause an unintended discharge rather than a typo. But there’s certainly no denying the appeal of the pen gun. With an MSRP of $749, it’s less than half the price of a Montblanc Meisterstuck pen (MSRP $1,295), but I’m probably not going to be carrying either the next time I’m out and about.

That’s it from K-town. As always, we’ll keep you posted.