Around the Annual Meeting: Gun for Hire
NRAblog 04.16.12
St.Louis, Missouri – “Lars, Lars, I’m coming to Virginia.”
Those were the words I heard on the very first day of NRA’s Annual Meetings and Exhibits in St. Louis. I recognized the voice immediately — it’s very distinctive. Sure enough, it was Colandro.
“I’m bringing fifteen people down from New Jersey for a personal tour of the National Firearms Museum by Phil Schreier himself,” he smiled. “It’s going to be epic.”
An NRA Certified Instructor, Anthony Colandro owns New Jersey’s Gun For Hire. One of the premiere firearm training facilities in the Northeast, Gun For Hire has six locations throughout the state with an eye on expanding into the Philadelphia area.
“We’ve had a lot of requests from people in the Philly area. There’s a market to be served.”
And as always with Anthony, there’s more. In addition to overseeing a record setting Friends of NRA banquet in New Jersey over the past two years, he’s also started his own weekly radio show called – you guessed it – Gun For Hire. “We have over 200,000 listeners who download the show,” said Colandro. “Every Monday we sift through four to six hundred emails with comments and questions. It’s been pretty great.”
Attending NRA’s Annual Meeting this year without his wife Pilar (she’s home with their son while he’s enjoying two weeks of leave from the Coast Guard), Colandro spent his time talking to dealers, meeting with retailers and exploring every avenue possible to improve his operation. Given his level of involvement, you have to wonder if there’s anything left?
“Did I tell you we’re also in final negotiations for a thirty minute television show,” he grinned. “Major production company, major network and we’ve already shot the pilot. It’s going to be epic.”
As I said — when it comes to Colandro, there’s always more.
NRAblog covers the 178 programs of the National Rifle Association. Whether it's the Youth Hunter Education Challenge, Women On Target, Hunters Rights, our National Competitions or a look at one of the thousands of guns in the National Firearms Museum, NRAblog is there to provide you an inside look to how it all happens at the NRA.
