Gun Shows...what's the point anymore?

I semi-agree with Doyle's statement about idiots, though I would change to "there are a few idiots" (at least at the shows I've been to). Seems gun shows attract people from all over the spectrum: sportsmen, hobbyists, etc., but also a few fringe (and maybe some anti-gunners posing as idiots??).

I don't mind the guards as that adds to the message that laws and order are to be obeyed. After all, we as gun owners must do our best to protect our sport.
 
Trust me, I hear both your arguments Tony and Doyle, it just disappoints me is all. To me its an example of us not walking the walk, proving that gunners also trust that law abiding citizens can carry concealed without negatively impacting society. We ask them to trust us, yet when we have an opportunity to show that we trust us...we blink. I know, I know, gun shows are private events.

Thats all I've got to say on that.
 
Doyle, thats an argument anti-gunners have been making for decades. Now we gunners say carry should be allowed everywhere except gunner events. But ok, everyone has a right to their opinion, and where to spend their money.
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Here's the problem with permitting thousands of people to carry loaded firearms at gun shows. We are forgetting that a big reason many people attend gun shows is to sell firearms. I myself have sold several firearms at gun shows. I have even sold my primary carry gun at a gun show. If the guard didn't check everyone for a loaded weapon, I can assure you that there would be numerous instances of people selling guns handing a loaded firearm to someone who is interested in buying it. And, out of that number, there will will be a good number of novices who instinctively pull the trigger or cock a hammer and then pull the trigger on a chambered round. KABOOM!!!

What, you don't think this could happen? Do you think telling people that things like this wouldn't happen if people "learned to keep their booger hook off of the bang switch" will get people NOT to do this? Well, it happens even when the guards do their best to try and keep people from bringing loaded weapons into the show. I was at one Central Florida gun show where a member of the US House of Representatives actually had a booth when all of the sudden you heard BANG. Some idiot who snuck his loaded carry gun in without having it checked handed it to another person who pressed the trigger shooting the guy who brought in the loaded gun in the leg.

The bottom line - if we want to continue to have gun shows, we need to keep idiots from bringing in loaded weapons. Until someone invents an accurate "idiot detector", where we can only disarm the idiots, it's a good idea to make everyone disarm before entering a gun show. The big difference is that gun show attendees participate in selling guns too.
 
The private pistol club that I belong to initially, after Illinois finally permitted concealed carry, banned concealed carry within the club's building. It was out of the same type concerns you are mentioning about gun shows. Fortunately it became clear to the club's leadership that this was sending exactly the wrong message, i.e., that law abiding citizens could not be trusted to carry a concealed firearm safely. So the rule was changed and now we can carry concealed within the club, but it is clear that your concealed firearm must remain concealed at all times unless, as in any location, you have a lawful reason for removing it from concealment. Banning concealed carry at gunshows tells the public that gun enthusiasts are irresponsible, and it is just too dangerous to allow guns to be carried loaded and concealed in public places. I think it is a terrible policy that plays into the hands of the anti-gun activists.
 
A few members have already alluded to the fact that merchants who set up shop in gun shows are almost always small business owners. These guys do not have the same credit terms, pricing, or buying as the big guys. A lot of people complain about the shrinking of the middle class and the disappearance of small businesses. If you guys do not care about this fact and are okay with big corporations (Walmart, Home Depot, Etc.) controlling everything, then buy as you will. The Affordable Care Act hurt a lot of small businesses. While you may not think that 50 employees is small, it certainly is not a large or medium business. From my personal experience, less than 2% of my employees actually signed up for insurance. The cost for insurance for our office staff took a major hike however. I have not got to a gun show in years since I have been trying to avoid buying guns. Lead me not into temptation... I can easily find it on my own! :p
 
A private gun club is a far cry different than a public gun show for the following reasons:

1. There is usually criteria to being accepted to membership of a private gun club;
2. Generally, to be a member of a private gun club you must have taken at least the basic NRA course;
3. There are range officers at private gun clubs plus members self-police.
4. There are only a tiny fraction of the people at a private gun club vs. a gun show on any given minute of the day while open.
5. Generally, experienced shooters join private gun clubs, not newbies and lookie-lews.
6. The media is not permitted to walk around at will at private gun clubs.
7. Generally folks will know or recognize each other at private gun clubs.
8. There is not millions of dollars of valuable merchandise on display at private gun clubs.
9. There is a severe and embarrassing punishment to breaking the rules at a private gun club - you get expelled.
10. People don't come to private gun clubs (typically) walking around looking for someone to buy their loaded firearm.

I'm as big of a proponent of concealed carry rights, 2nd amendment rights, gun rights, machine gun and silencer rights as anyone out there. However, I do recognize that there are certain places people should not be permitted to carry a loaded firearm: Bars, Courthouses, and Gun Shows are on my short list. Bars, because drunks and guns don't mix. Courthouses because Judges (or Juries) making decisions on who goes to jail, who gets custody of little Suzie, or who pays whom lots of money just don't mix well. And Gun Shows because there are too many idiots crammed into a small space who forget to check the chamber (or cylinder) of a gun before handing it to someone or pulling the trigger themselves - and there's a lot of back-and-forth gun handling at gun shows that can't be monitored by a Range Officer.

That said, I think people should be able to carry guns almost anywhere else, even on planes.
 
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You are venturing down a slippery slope. Many of us (myself included) find it preposterous that a license to dispense alcohol in a room makes it unsafe (for anyone inside) for a good man to go armed. It is equally ludicrous that I am "trusted" enough to be legally armed at the McDonald's or Wal-Mart, but not during a high school theater production that my child is participating in.

You will NEVER be successful when you try to legislate safety and make rules to prevent stupid, careless, unsafe people from doing ignorant things.

Evidence:
all of your gun shows with ALL of your rules and YET it continues to happen
 
I went to Tampa show this weekend $40 for accurate #9 powder and $700 plus for revolvers that look like they have been dragged 2 miles..;

I'm going to pass for a while

Thewelshm
 
Sevens, it sounds like your position is that there is no place firearms should be prohibited. That any legislation prohibiting a licensed person from carrying a concealed firearm is a "slippery slope" and therefore dangerous for gun rights. Do you believe that everyone who is licensed to carry a firearm should be permitted to carry in these places:

Liquor bar (not a restaurant that serves food and some beer and wine too)
Inside of a courtroom during a divorce trial
Inside of the Whitehouse
Inside of the US capitol building, in the Senate Chamber
Inside of a MRI machine


If you want an absolute right to carry anywhere and everywhere, are you prepared to have far more restrictive laws on who can have a carry permit and far more stringent qualifications on what you must do to get such a permit. For me to get my carry permit, I filled out an application, attended a 2 hour class that basically went over where I can and cannot legally carry, and fired one shot from a .22lr revolver into something that looked like a big bullet-proof box. Given the ease of being able to get a CC permit and the fact that we know some people will gladly sacrifice their own lives for vengeance, notoriety, or political reasons, I'm not so sure I want people carrying guns absolutely everywhere.
 
Well, there are PLENTY of times that I am dead sure certain I don't even want some people to SAY whatever they want to say, whenever they want to say it!

Now, to your list above--
Will the exception of the MRI, you have made the assumption that every one of those PLACES turns good people in to bad people, or so it sure does seem so.

The White House is a curious one. I would imagine they do not do public tours with important elected officials also in the house, but I don't know.

In the end, it's already illegal to shoot someone, but the people who do it anyway aren't changing their plans because their intended victim is hanging out in a gun free zone.
 
I go to sun shows for the ambiance and to be around guys and guns. Guns and ammo are better deals on line.
I was brought up as a little kid in the 50's going to shows with my dad. I just get a warm fuzzy feeling there. I will go till I die.
 
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I went to a gun show just 2 weeks ago. Got to handle some very nice guns, talk to some very nice people, and get a darned good deal on some sandalwood pillar candles. :p
 
I got my best deals at gun shows, but it was back in the old Bill Goodman days. Later, for at least the past 20 years the gun shows were once a month at our local trade center, but that had gone belly up in favor of a Menards a few months ago. During those days, it was simply a good time to view all the guns you wanted to see in one place, since prices were no longer any better than the shops that were represented there. "Gun Show prices" were a thing of the past. Nice atmosphere of like-minded patrons, and you got to know a lot of the vendors, that would eventually cut you a deal as a regular customer. Picked up a few of my guns like that. Doesn't really matter to me anymore, that the trade center no longer exists, as I have moved 200 miles north to a rural area, that has the type of gun show, where only used items are present, other than one dealer that was always at the trade shows as well. Much smaller scale, though. These are fun as well, because you may just find a pristine example of a gun you've wanted all your life. I did, last year, a Mossberg 151-M, for what I considered a great price, and the atmosphere of these is even friendlier than the bigger ones. 5 bucks to get in, and no "free Fridays" like the trade center had, but to me it's always a good time to get lost in the land of blue steel and wood even for just a while.
 
^I read that and it really seems to me that a gun show is often "what you make it"

Actually, it seems to me even with every one of the frothing, ranting, ridiculously frustrated views... a gun show is indeed what you make it.

May be a good idea for some to consider that and... yeah, just stay home.
 
I went to one this year after not going for 5 years and thought it was pretty good. Of course $11 to get in and $3 parking. Anyway when I left I got to talking to some guys that go to them a couple times a year and they commented it was the best one in years.
 
In post 69 I mentioned the way gun shows are around here, I also mentioned the big flea market they have in Kansas.

This weekend was the weekend for the flea market, it started today and ends Sunday.

Well the wife and I went today, lot of things to look at, antiques, crafts, tools, horse tack, guns and gun related items.

I stopped at a vendor that amongst the other things he had was guns and gun related items.
He struck up a conversation with me about the old cowboy hat I had on.
It's my working hat, has been stepped on by cows, calves, and horses, it's also seen it's share of rain, snow, ice and dust, it's no dude hat it's the real deal.

While we were talking about my hat I was rummaging through his box of holsters and came across a Triple K cross draw holster.
This was an older Triple K made from quality leather and the holster did not look as if it had been used.
I ask him how much, he said $10, I could not get my money out fast enough.

Once again the flea market pays off for me, got a good buy on a great holster, did not have to pay any admission or parking fee and the flea market had more gun and gun related items then any gun shows around here.
 
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