gun shows

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Gun Shows In Chicago?

October 15, 2012 by 7 Comments

A posting in today’s The Shooting Wire announcing the Chicagoland Gun Show caught my eye.

Outdoor Sports Group (OSG) is proud to announce the first ever Chicagoland Gun Show January 23-27, 2013 at the Donald E. Stephens Convention Center in Rosemont Illinois.

The Chicagoland Gun Show will be co-located with the Chicago Outdoor Sports Show which continues a 30 + year tradition of sports shows gracing the shores of Lake Michigan and providing the Greater Chicagoland area a break from cabin fever.

While there are other shows in the vicinity of Chicago, for example shows in Wheaton and Lakemoor, I couldn’t find any that were actually being held in Cook County unlike this show. Rosemont is outside the city limits of Chicago near O’Hare Airport.

I like the fact that they are co-locating the gun show with the outdoor sports show as it should bring higher traffic to the gun show. Given the onerous restrictions on gun ownership and even gun stores in Chicago, I’m guessing there might be some pent-up demand to go someplace where you can actually “touch and feel” a firearm and, with the proper documentation, buy a firearm.

I know the promoters are calling this the “first ever Chicagoland Gun Show” but I wonder if this is hyperbole. If any readers in the Chicago area know of gun shows in Cook County, either current or in the distant past, I’d love to know about it. You can post the info in the comments section.

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What I Did This Morning

October 8, 2012 by 12 Comments

Grass Roots North Carolina, the state’s more aggressive gun rights organization, usually has a booth at all the major gun shows across the state. These booths – like the organization itself – are staffed by volunteers. Knowing the election was coming up and with the Complementary Spouse out of town taking care of family matters, I thought helping out at the Asheville Gun & Knife Show would be an ideal way to spend a few hours.

Our job was to introduce people to GRNC, hand out voter guides, and hopefully sign up new members. While the show opened at 10am, it took a while for people to start showing up. I’m guessing a lot of folks either went on Saturday or they were at church.

John Hammond, who coordinates these efforts in the mountains for GRNC, told me that he had handed out over 300 voter guides on Saturday. He also told me that the Republican nominee for the 11th Congressional District, Mark Meadows, had visited the booth yesterday along with Rep. Joe “You Lie!” Wilson (R-SC) and the 2010 Republican nominee Jeff Miller of Hendersonville.

In the three hours that I worked the booth, I’d estimate we spoke with 50-75 people. Some were already members, some had never heard of GRNC, and some were interested in joining in the future. After running into 3-4 people who said they were not registered to vote, we started asking people if they were registered to vote before giving out a voter guide. Those that were registered were genuinely interested in the voter guide. I stressed that we were non-partisan and that in some cases the Democrat actually was ranked better than the Republican.

I have to admit that I was somewhat dumbfounded that we ran into that many unregistered voters. I guess I shouldn’t be but with the ease of registration nowadays it makes it hard to say you didn’t have an opportunity. We never pressed it as we thought the deadline for registration was this past Friday (30 day before the election). However, checking the State Board of Elections website, I found that the deadline will actually be this Friday, October 12th. Given this, it would have been a good idea for GRNC, the NRA, or another gun rights organization to have had a voter registrar available to register these potential voters.

All in all, I had a good time. Of course, since I was already at the show, I had to do a little shopping. I came home with some Greek 30-06 ammo in en bloc clips, a couple of AK magazines, and a smattering of other stuff but no new guns.

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Small Gun Shows

September 24, 2012 by 1 Comment

The Complementary Spouse and I trekked up to Micaville to attend the High Country Gun Show. Micaville is about 45 minutes north of Asheville in the shadow of Mount Mitchell which is the highest peak in the eastern United States. It was just the right distance for a Sunday drive.

There is something to said for the smaller gun shows. They are less crowded, the vendors have more time to spend with you, and everything and everybody is just friendlier.

I had a short list of things I was seeking. I was looking for 5.56 and 7.62 stripper clips and spoons, AK-47 steel magazines, and paracord for the Complementary Spouse. I did end up buying 4 AK mags, a handful of 5.56 stripper clips for a nickel each, a box of small rifle magnum primers, a couple of boxes of Yugoslavian 7.62×39 ammo, and 2 Rite in the Rain notebooks. We couldn’t find any paracord other than already made-up survival bracelets or any spoons for the stripper clips.

I can’t speak for all smaller shows but at least at this one vendors were happy to send you to a competitor if they didn’t have what you wanted. That’s how I ended up with the AK mags and ammo.

While the High Country Gun Show had lots of handguns, they also had a lot more hunting rifles and shotguns than other shows I’ve been to recently. They also had some rifles in more unusual calibers such as a gorgeous Winchester Model 70 in .300 Holland and Holland and a Remington 700 in .416 Rem Mag (or maybe .416 Rigby). I also came across a Browning Citori O/U shotgun in 16 gauge. I love 16 gauges and this was a nice one at a good price.

To sum it up, if you get a chance to go to a smaller gun show, take it. I think you’ll have a good time.

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A Trip To The Gun Show

July 15, 2012 by 3 Comments

Yesterday, the Complementary Spouse and I went to the Land of the Sky Gun and Knife Show held at the WNC Ag Center. This was her first gun show and my first one in a couple of years.

Things have changed since the last one I attended. I saw more guns, ammo, and knives and less military surplus and Nazi militaria than in the past. In fact, I don’t think I saw any of the Nazi stuff. The gun show had moved to a new building and this attracted more vendors. This was a welcome change in my opinion. I also didn’t notice that many people selling personal guns like in the past. So much for the myth of the gun show loophole.

I asked the Complementary Spouse for her impressions of the show. She said there were a lot of families and a lot of baby strollers cruising the aisles. Of course, one of those strollers had five Yorkshire Terriers in it! The other thing she noticed that there were a lot of people buying stuff as evidenced the number of shopping bags.

I had a couple of things I wanted to do at the show and I accomplished both. First, I wanted to meet Mark Meadows who is running as a Republican in the 11th District of NC. He has received four stars from GRNC as well as their recommendation. He was the leader in the first primary but just missed the 40% threshhold to avoid a run-off.

The second thing I wanted to do was find .380 ammo at a reasonable price. I ended up getting a box each of ammo from American Eagle, Tula, PMC, and Sellier and Bellot for an average of $15 per box. I want to try them out in my new-to-me Sig P238 which I bought used last week.

Of course, going to a gun show is like going to WalMart – you always leave with more than just what was on your list. I ended up getting large and small pistol primers, some cleaning equipment, and even a leather pocket holster for the P238.

The Complementary Spouse got in the act as well. She ended up with a selection of exotics meats jerky for her son-in-law Jeremy as well as paracord in a variety of cool colors to use in crafting.

We had a good time and I think we’ll be going back the next time they are in town.

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Cool Gun Show

July 3, 2012 by 1 Comment

Most gun shows nowadays have devolved into something else. However, I got an email the other day for a gun show that I think would be a lot of fun to attend.

When my family took our great Bicentennial trip out west, we stopped in Cody to visit the Buffalo Bill Historical Center and the Cody Firearms Museum. I think back then it was called the Winchester Museum but I could be wrong. I do remember that even as a 19 year old I was quite impressed with the gun collection.

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Bloomberg Back To His Old Tricks

January 31, 2011 by 5 Comments

According to a story in the New York Times, Bloomberg sent undercover investigators to the Crossroads of the West gunshow in Phoenix, Arizona the weekend of January 22-23. The story isn’t clear on whether these were private investigators or actual NYPD undercover cops.

The goal of these investigators was to purchase firearms from private sellers without a background check. As you can guess, they succeeded.

In two instances, the New York undercover officers specifically said before buying a gun, “I probably couldn’t pass a background check,” but were still sold guns, city officials said.

In a third case, an investigator bought a Glock pistol and two high-capacity magazines like the ones used in the Tucson shooting. Such purchases were made without any background check but were perfectly legal.

Bloomberg plans to release the results of his “investigation” today. I’m sure he’ll make a big deal out of it. What will be missing from any discussion is that the purchasers broke Federal law in purchasing handguns in another state without going through a FFL.

Now, I think a couple of those sellers were stupid as it sounded like an entrapment situation. Given this was in a border state, I would be surprised if the BATFE didn’t have undercover agents at the show pursuing Operation Gunrunner. Instead of muckraking investigators from New York City trying to make hay for Bloomberg, they could have been dealing with an ATF agent trying to pad his arrest statistics.

UPDATE: The New York Daily News also is covering this story in their typical idiotic way. According to their story, Bloomberg used private investigators to make the purchases. Of course, the Daily News refers to the sellers as “Arizona gun dealers” as opposed to private individuals giving the impression that they are being sold off the books from a FFL.

Bloomberg promises to have video of the transactions at a news conference.

This all leads to an obvious question – does being a billionaire mayor and gun banner absolve you from conspiracy to commit a felony?

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And I Almost Went to a Gun Show Today!

October 17, 2010 by

Courtesy of Everyday, No Days Off we have a description of the personalities that you will run into at a gun show. He also has a description of many of the vendors.

I almost laughed myself hoarse after reading these. And the sad part is that they are all just a bit too accurate.

My favorite personality was No. 15:

The “south will rise again” guy, normally between 350-450 pounds, wearing a confederate hat and sweat-stained grey Walmart sweatpants. He talks about old Bobby Lee like an old friend he hasn’t seen in awhile and how he is looking forward to the next American civil war where he is going to single handily kick the crap out of every government agency himself. Check

And my favorite vendor was No. 5:

Ammo purgatory. He has a huge display with every type of ammo anyone could want – set up with absolutely no order to any of it.

If we didn’t have out-of-town visitors coming tomorrow, I would have printed this out and taken it with me to the Land O’Sky Gun Show at the Ag Center to compare it against the people I saw there. There is always a next time.