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WHAT'S
THE STORY?
The
DEF CON Shoot is a public event that happens just prior to the DEF CON
hacker conference in Las Vegas, Nevada. It is an opportunity to see and possibly shoot some of the guns belonging to your friends
while taking pride in showing and firing your own steel, as well, in a relaxed and welcoming atmosphere.
Maybe you have a favorite chef in your hometown who is
adventurous and will rent out abandoned space for a pop-up restaurant that only lasts one weekend or maybe you've attended an
off-book beer garden on the edge of a city street one afternoon. The DEF CON Shoot has historically been like that. We rent
range, tables, chairs, canopies, and all the necessary safety equipment if you don't have them already... and we have ourselves a pop-up gun range.
It's a hackers' firing line that exists for only one day every year, then when the guns fall silent it vanishes again... not to be seen for another year.
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WHERE
IT ALL GOES DOWN
The 2024 DEF
CON Shoot will take place at...
Pro Gun Vegas
12801 Old U.S. 95
Boulder City, NV 89005
For
specific directions to the shoot site go to the directions page, or drop the following Lat/Long
coordinates if you feel confident... 35.959653, -114.922406
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WHEN
IT HAPPENS
The
DEF CON Shoot takes place prior to the start of DEF CON. In the past,
this has meant Thursday, but with the conference having more and more
activities on that day, we started running some of the Shoot on Wednesday.
In 2018, we moved the shoot exclusively to Wednesday. That worked well for everyone who had Goon duties and DEF CON prep on Thursday,
and this is the schedule for 2024...
Wednesday,
August 7th 2024
Staff
Setup - 10:00 - 11:00
Registration
Opens at 11:00
Intro
& Safety - 11:45 - 12:00
Session
01 - 12:15 - 13:45
Session
02 - 14:00 - 15:30
Session
03 - 15:45 - 17:15
Cleanup
- 17:15 - 18:00
Thursday,
August 8th 2024
no DEFCON Shoot
Go
enjoy the rest of DEF CON, BSides, and Black Hat
Each 90 minute
shooting session usually consist of repeated periods involving about
15-25 minutes of shooting, followed by a short cease-fire.
That gives everyone time to reset targets, etc.
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WHO CAN ATTEND?
You do not have to be a registered attendee of DEF CON, Black Hat, BSides,
or a member of any organization to attend our event. Simply register as a shooter for general entry to attend. You can do this either on-site with cash
or via pre-registration. As long as you agree to comply
with the terms of our Code of Conduct laid out at the bottom of the registraion page, you are welcome. New shooters and veterans both attend
regularly. You can attend with your firearms, of course, but folk without guns of their own in Vegas almost always have the opportunity to try gear
from others in attendance. Each person that rents a lane determines how their lane is run. Many choose to offer their firearms for rental at a
reasonable price (usually in cash), others may want to keep their lane private for their friends.
Or you can inquire with the ProGun range about
whether their rental firearms are available. People have rented machine guns from ProGun in the past, they have a decent selection but they often
charge more than DEF CON shoot attendees rent their guns for.
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WHY
WE DO THIS
For
many years, the DEF CON Shoot was a beloved part of the world's largest
hacker convention. Gun owning geeks would rally together in Vegas for
DEF CON and -- in between the talks, parties, and general goings-on
in Sin City -- they would take the time one morning to head out in the
desert and blow off some steam by letting loose with loads of ordinance.
Organized by CHS, a highly venerated DEF CON Goon, this event took place
year after year until 2005. As
is so often the case with events at DEF CON, times had changed and the
event had outgrown its surroundings. For a number of years, there was
no DEF CON Shoot... the ranges where it had taken place in the past
had been swallowed up by the city's suburban sprawl and folks just needed
a break. Now, however, with the help of some new blood, the event has
been resurrected. While CHS is no longer leading the proceedings, we
always hope to see him and many of the veterans of past DC-Shoot events
at the firing line.
Deviant Ollam
frequently used to gather some of his friends for trips to
local rental ranges like The Gun Store or American Shooters, but because he has only been attending DEF CON since DC8 he missed out on a
great deal of the earlier fun. In 2008, Deviant restarted the event and acted as the primary coordinator, whipping up enough gun enthusiasts'
support to see this sort of high-powered good time continue happening for the next eleven years.
The 2020 Shoot did not take place due to the COVID-19 pandemic and the
lack of an in-person DEF CON conference that year. In 2021, several of the long-time DC Shoot attendeed restarted efforts and gathered in the
desert once again. In 2022 the event returned in full force, now with longtime staff member seeess at the helm, with assistance from Deviant
and several other mainstays from prior years. We look forward to welcoming everyone who wishes to attend in good faith and high spirits as we
start to reclaim our legacy of fun events and welcoming attitude on the firing line.
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WHOA,
THAT'S A GREAT DEAL!
This
isn't a gun range and we're not trying to run this like a business or
anything (we have lost money every year for the last 3 years). Starting in 2011 we established a small registration system
for people to gain access to the event and reserve shooting lanes. This
was necessary in order to manage the number of people (or at least PLAN
for the number of people) and to keep the line from becoming unsafely
crowded. Also, that was the first year that we started to have significant
overhead, in all senses of the term... both in costs as well as sun
shade for the participants!
DEF CON Shoot Registration Page
Pre-registration is not required, on-site cash registration is possible.
But if you want to reserve a lane, pre-registration is recommended since lanes usually sell out.
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WOOT!
I'M GAME!
So,
you think you'd like to participate in the DEF CON
Shoot? That's great! We look forward to you joining us. You can use the link above
to pre-register and then swing on over to the DEF CON Forums or
hit Deviant or seeess up on Twitter to
connect with others about any questions you may have. Ride sharing,
t-shirt designs, camping arrangements, and more are all discussed on
the DEF CON forums or in the Slack instance that we use for organizing the Shoot. Ping us for a Slack invite.
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WAIT...
AREN'T VEGAS CASINOS SUPER SCARED OF GUNS NOW?
Yes...
by all accounts, most casinos (and casino-hotels) in Las Vegas are now
all wary of one of their guests being the next deranged shooter who
tries to sew mayhem and discontent by raining horrible firepower down
from a window. There is news coverage as well as anecdotal chatter from
folk who report that guests are being subject to greater scrutiny if
they have Pelican cases, long cases, etc. However, it should be noted:
1.
Most Vegas hotels have had a no firearms policy for a while now
2.
You're still VERY unlikely to get much scrutiny if your luggage doesn't
look "firearm-ish"
In
any case, we suspect that a lot of you may become familiar with something
that lots of us more heavily-armed folk have known for years when staying
in Las Vegas: the bulk of the mainstream casino-hotels will allow guests
to check their legal firearms with the security office during their
stay. Many of us have done this before at multiple hotel properties. Simply call ahead so you know what is expected at the casino,
then plan a little more time in your schedule to accommodate this part
of the process. Or stay in an AirBNB or a shitball place nearby. We're betting they don't care at all there... they just want their $56 per
night and prefer you to not leave used heroin works in the potted plants
outside.
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WOW!
LOOKS LIKE YOU ALL HAD FUN!
Yes, indeed...
it's always a great time when you get a bunch of gun people together.
We
don't update these gallery links much anymore, because now you can always
check Twitter for
the hashtag #DEFCONshoot to see what folk share. There are some
great
photos!
Here
is z0rlac's video montage from the 2012 DEF CON Shoot...
z0rlac's
video
There
were some great videos shot at the 2011 DEF CON Shoot...
Here
is a video montage from the 2009 DEF CON Shoot..
.
deviant's
video
Here
are some photos from the 2008 DEF CON Shoot...
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