Gunshow After-Action Report.

Now I remember why I don’t go to gun shows. As a commenter on the previous piece noted, the Pima County Fairgrounds doesn’t charge for parking, so it was only $8 to get in. While I was there I perused the entire thing – twice. Only two jerky booths (that’s gotta be a record.) And I hereby proclaim the beanie-baby fad OVER! Not one to be seen anywhere.

No Kimber t-shirts either. If you wanted a t-shirt with a dog on it, they had every AKC-recognized breed going, but no Kimbers. Also no HK, no SIG, and no Colt.

Bummer.

I could have picked up an 8# jug of BL(C)-2 for $112 (plus tax) which is a pretty good price, but after reading the piece that inspired this post, I’m more than a little reluctant to buy powder at a gunshow.

I did a little people-watching while I was there. The most obvious thing I noticed is that gunshow crowds are primarily middle-aged white men. Fat middle aged white men. There were some yoots (and more than one brought his rather fine significant other). There were some others who carried the aura of gang-banger, and who showed significant interest in the (shall we say) tactical weaponry. But overall, the gunshow demographic shares a lot with the Buick-buying crowd.

Except they’re cheaper. I could not help but overhear a lot of the haggling going on. Understandable, as most everything I saw looked significantly overpriced to me, except for the really cheap (and cheaply made) knives on a lot of the tables, but there was a lot of “that’s about as low as I can go” and “is that the out-the-door price?” going on.

Oh well, at least this time I was only out eight bucks.