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Lethal Innovations Introduced at the 2025 SHOT Show

A closer look at some of the dangerous new products unveiled at the 2025 SHOT Show, the gun industry’s largest convention.

Editor’s Note: Special thanks to Rob Romano for his help in crafting this story.

Last week, the National Shooting Sports Foundation’s annual Shooting, Hunting, Outdoor Trade (SHOT) Show took place in Las Vegas, giving the manufacturers and importers of firearms, ammunition, and related accessories an opportunity to showcase their latest products to media outlets and customers. The trade show is the largest of its kind, and this year it had over 2,800 exhibitors.

As with past conventions, exhibitors at the 2025 SHOT Show displayed hundreds of “tactical” products for military and law enforcement customers alongside those meant for civilians, including assault weapons, silencers, and other dangerous innovations, as discussed below. The SHOT Show helps conflate the two markets, exemplifying the gun industry’s reliance on military and law enforcement marketing to boost civilian sales.

the ar platform

Mountain Billy Gun Lab (from the former founders of  Wee1 Tactical) showcased three scaled-down, .22-caliber AR-15s at the 2025 SHOT Show as part of its “GOAT-15” series. The company says the smaller, lighter rifles are easy to carry while hiking. But in the past, Wee1 Tactical marketed an earlier iteration of the rifles, known as the “JR-15,” with cartoons and claims that the rifle “looks, feels, and operates just like Mom and Dad’s gun.”

Middleton Made, a Wisconsin-based manufacturer, has designed a bump grip that works like a bump stock — allowing a shooter to simulate machine gun fire with an AR-15, for example — but does not have a shoulder stock. The bump grip can be installed on any firearm that uses an AR-style pistol grip, meaning that the device has broad compatibility because gun makers have included AR components, including pistol grips, on an increasing number of weapons in recent years.

Middleton Made advertised the bump grip on Instagram ahead of the SHOT Show.
Middleton Made advertised the bump grip on Instagram ahead of the SHOT Show.

As an example of how gun makers have spread AR-15 components to different weapon types, Mossberg, the country’s largest shotgun manufacturer, used the SHOT Show to debut new pump-action shotguns that feature AR-style safeties and pistol grips. Two of the new models also come with detachable magazines that hold 10 shells.

Another gun manufacturer, FightLite Industries, debuted a new Raptor upper receiver that allows AR-15s to use belted ammunition like larger military machine guns. The company also produces “featureless” AR-15s for sale in states that restrict assault weapons.

deadly handguns at the SHOT SHow

Shortly before the SHOT Show, Ruger debuted a new 9mm pistol, the RXM, that uses a Magpul frame and several Glock-style components to capitalize on the popularity of Glock pistols and aftermarket products. Because the pistol uses Glock-style trigger components, and is compatible with many Glock Gen3 parts, the RXM may be compatible with machine gun conversion devices (MCDs) made by third parties known as “Glock switches.”

The RXM is a collaboration between Ruger and Magpul.
The RXM is a collaboration between Ruger and Magpul.

Kel-Tec, a company known for producing unique weapons like folding rifles, debuted the PR57, a pistol designed to fire high-velocity 5.7x28mm ammunition that can travel twice as fast as a typical 9mm round. Instead of using detachable magazines, the PR57 is fed from the top via clips. This makes the gun much thinner than competing models and easier to conceal on one’s person.

Smith & Wesson used the 2025 SHOT Show to reintroduce several classic revolvers. But now the guns lack an internal locking mechanism that the company introduced decades ago, which enabled owners to deactivate the revolvers with a key and prevent them from firing. The locking systems were considered child-proofing measures, but at least one gun media outlet celebrated their removal: “These are the quintessential American revolvers, only now without pointless child-proofing.”

Several exhibitors also displayed custom firearms with gold accents and engravings to celebrate President Donald Trump. One of the most notable is the “MAGA Magnum” Desert Eagle introduced by Magnum Research, a Kahr Firearms Group brand. Kahr brands have produced several Trump-themed firearms in recent years, including a “Trump Save America” Tommy gun, and the company has ties to the extremist Rod of Iron Ministries “gun church.”

Chambered in the .50 Action Express, making it one of the most powerful handguns, the MAGA Magnum’s grip is engraved with the image of Trump raising his fist after surviving an assassination attempt with an AR-15 and the words “Fight Fight Fight.” The pistol may indeed be the first deliberately crafted to commemorate an act of gun violence.

Magnum Research posted photos of the MAGA Magnum, which costs over $6,000, on Instagram.
Magnum Research posted photos of the MAGA Magnum, which costs over $6,000, on Instagram.

more firepower

Multiple exhibitors at the 2025 SHOT Show debuted new .50-caliber sniper rifles, including Palmetto State Armory, which showcased a semi-automatic prototype, the Sabre Lancet, with a silencer and 20-round drum magazine. Others on display, like the Auto-Ordnance TAO50, Bushmaster BA50, and HM Defense HM50B2, are manually operated bolt-action rifles.

Palmetto State Armory also debuted a 9mm pistol “inspired by” MAC-style assault pistols — like the kind used in the mass shootings in Louisville in 1989 and Monterey Park in 2023 — that uses 30-round magazines and can be fitted with a silencer.

Finally, Franklin Armory, which produces binary triggers for ARs, AKs, and even Glocks, introduced a new binary trigger for FN SCAR rifles. FN originally designed the SCAR as a modular battle rifle for U.S. Special Operations Command (USSOCOM) personnel and began selling versions to civilians in 2008.

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