Free Republic

A 12-gauge shotgun loaded with bird shot accidentally discharged Saturday when the owner opened its case at a gun show at the North Carolina State Fairgrounds in Raleigh, injuring a retired sheriff's deputy and two other people, police said. The gun owner, a 36-year-old man from Wilmington, North Carolina, was carrying the weapon through security at the show entrance and was unfastening the case on a table, authorities said. The owner planned to sell the shotgun at the show. The deputy suffered a slight injury to his hand and was treated and released at a local hospital, said Joel Keith,...

SARATOGA SPRINGS — The recent Saratoga Springs Arms Fair at the City Center had record-setting attendance and sales, organizers say. The three-day event drew nearly 7,000 people, twice previous totals, said Cathy Petronis, of Mechanicville, who runs the show with her husband, David. The gun show drew extensive media coverage because of opponents who wanted to have it canceled, following last month’s elementary school shooting deaths in Newtown, Conn. Dozens of people, both for and against, demonstrated outside the City Center last Saturday. "Not only was it not cancelled, the show saw the greatest attendance in its history," David Petronis...

One of the biggest gun industry trade shows in America starts in Las Vegas on Tuesday, as President Obama considers proposals from Vice President Joseph Biden's task force on gun violence one month after the Newtown, Conn., school massacre. The SHOT Show, which stands for Shooting, Hunting, Outdoor Trade, runs from Jan. 15 to Jan. 18 and is operated by the National Shooting Sports Foundation, a gun industry group that is based in Newtown. The annual event is open only to members of the industry and not to the general public. It's being held at the Sands Expo and Convention...

EVANSVILLE — An Evansville bar owner said he plans to file a lawsuit against the Rock County Sheriff's Office after authorities early Sunday morning shut down the last day of an annual three-day gun show. Sheriff's Capt. Jude Maurer said Geno's Wild Ride Saloon, 7530 N. County M, violated state statues regarding its Class B liquor license when it held a gun show Friday and Saturday in an attached hall. The last day of the gun show was canceled. Gene Heiman, owner of the bar also known as the old Red Barn, said this year was the 40th annual gun...

The Crossroads of the West Gun Show attracted thousands of firearms enthusiasts to Ontario Convention Center today. The crowd was so large that officials slowed entry to the show to a virtual crawl during the show's early hours to avoid overcrowding the venue. Crossroads of the West typically attracts about 7,000 visitors during its Ontario appearances, show owner Bob Templeton said. He expects double that amount this weekend. The crowd, he said, is likely a reaction to expectations that Congress will at least give serious consideration to major gun control legislation this year. For example, Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., has...

HOUSTON - The Texas Department of Transportation will continue to use freeway message signs in Houston to provide directions to firearms-related events, state officials said Thursday evening. On Thursday afternoon, local TxDOT officials told KPRC Local 2 that gun show directions would no longer be displayed on the signs. A short time later, state officials said that an error had been made. "The decision 2 suspend use of these signs for similar future events in Houston was made in error by the district office," a tweet from TxDOT read. The electronic signs are routinely used to direct traffic or tell...

OAKS, Pa. (CBS) — A gun show in Montgomery County drew a huge crowd on Sunday, despite calls for stricter gun control after a shooting rampage at an elementary school in Newtown, Connecticut. If gun control advocates were hoping the scale of death at Sandy Hook Elementary School would dampen enthusiasm for the purchase of guns, the line of people waiting to get in to the Greater Philadelphia Expo Center was evidence to the contrary. “It’s more crowded than it has been in the past.” The crowd was diverse, there were even families with children, but none of the shoppers...

Passing through the sometimes crowded aisles of the Washington Arms Collectors’ monthly gun show at the Puyallup Fairgrounds, there was no question that a lot of people were there doing some serious shopping in the wake of the Nov. 6 election. There was also no doubt that some people in that pavilion had voted for Obama, and were in a rather interesting quandry: how to engage in a conversation about the election while not necessarily being confrontational or combative. A couple seemed smug without daring to engage in a full debate. All of the "suspects" invariably spoke without looking us...

My first recollection involving a real gun was when I was about 8 years old and Dad took us boys out to a pasture in Minnesota with a 12-gauge. One of the brothers was smart. He brought along two washcloths and packed them under his shirt to absorb the kick. He didn’t share, so the rest of us nearly had our arms ripped off when we pulled the trigger. I declined Dad’s offer for another go at it, and it was a while before I shot another gun. I don’t mind guns, and even considered getting one when we moved...

Crossroads of the West bills itself as the biggest traveling gun show in America, a bastion for constitutional rights where freedom lovers can exchange weapons, ammunition and ideas. The 35-year-old company promotes events in four states – Arizona, California, Nevada and Utah – and last year’s shows drew more than 407,000 customers at up to $16 bucks a pop. Last weekend, Crossroads occupied the Arizona State Fairgrounds in Phoenix, and although these expos swing through the area regularly, the parking lot filled up fast. There’s a seasonal element to the high traffic. Monsoon thunderstorms have cooled the desert lately, and...

UMA, AZ - Hundreds of dove hunters flocked to the Yuma Civic Center this weekend. The first ever Yuma Territorial Gun Show was held for two days this weekend to coincide with the opening of dove season. Organizers of the event say dove hunters often hit their dove limit within the first couple of hours and are left with nothing to do so having a gun show this time of year makes sense. Gun show attendees could shop for firearms and accessories and even have their dove cleaned while they shopped. The owner of the gun show says they not...

FORT WORTH -- As area gun owners browsed handguns, rifles and ammunition Saturday, some were touting "stand-your-ground" laws and urging more states to adopt similar provisions, even as a national debate continues over whether to repeal them after the February shooting death of a Florida teenager by a neighborhood watch coordinator. The Florida case, along with others in Texas and elsewhere, has focused on whether stand-your-ground laws should be scaled back or eliminated. But at a Fort Worth gun show Saturday, the focus was quite different. "It's sad that we have to worry about it, but that's the world we...

t’s a centuries-old debate: Whether people should be able to own guns, what kind, how many, and under what circumstances. Gun shows are a part of that debate. A case being heard by the federal Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals was brought by a couple named Russell and Sallie Nordyke, who want to host guns shows in Alameda, Marin, and San Mateo counties. Currently, those counties ban gun shows. At issue is whether people have the right under the Second Amendment to the U.S. Constitution to sell guns whenever and wherever they want. The Nordykes claim that local governments don’t...

Before the end of this year, Russell and Sallie Nordyke will set up shop for at least five gun shows at the Santa Clara County fairgrounds, providing a gathering spot for thousands of gun enthusiasts to buy and sell rifles, pistols and other weapons. For the Glenn County couple, the South Bay is a small island amid a sea of hostility toward their TS Gun Shows. Bay Area counties from Alameda and Marin to San Mateo have enacted laws that forbid the sale or possession of guns on government property, effectively banning gun shows at some of the best spots...

Cocked, locked, and ready to rock, the Sierra Vista Gun Show kicked off with a bang-bang this weekend for the first time in more than a decade. And with upward of 42 vendors selling everything from elite precision rifles and cowboy six-shooters to tactical gear, coins, and jewelry, The Knights of Columbus Hall was packed on Saturday and Sunday for the first in a series of three shows planned at the venue in a span of only six months. “We are here because your community demanded it,” said Dennis Champagne, owner of Arizona Collectibles and Firearms, which sponsored the show....

PALMER — It takes a high-caliber weapon to turn heads at the annual Palmer Lions Club Gun Show, like Doug Albright’s Browning M2 .50-caliber machine gun. The Fairbanks resident had the fully functional weapon mounted on two-by-fours at his booth. Albright isn’t selling the gun, but said it’s a great conversation piece and a way to draw show-goers to his table to see what else he has to offer. “Oh, it works,” he said. “I’ve shot up old cars with it before, cast-iron boilers, they’re good, too.” It’s at Albright’s table, Anchorage resident Deryl Titus was found admiring the Browning....

JANESVILLE — Interest in firearms, fueled partly by Wisconsin’s new concealed-carry law, prompted a thousand gun enthusiasts to the Rock County 4-H Fairgrounds in Janesville on Saturday for the Rock County Rifle and Pistol Club gun show. “Interest has definitely picked up, and I’m sure the new concealed-carry law has something to do with it,” said the club’s president, Joe LeBeau of Janesville. “We see increased interest in firearms and an increase in our membership.” LeBeau answered questions about the club Saturday while signing up new club members. He said the club now has about 360 members including adult men...

KNOXVILLE (WATE) - A man was taken to the hospital Sunday afternoon after shooting himself in the hand at a gun show. Gun dealer Bill Adams, 64, of Kodak, was taking a concealed gun out to show a customer, when the gun discharged and shot him in the hand. Knoxville Police said the man removed the magazine from the .45 semiautomatic Kimber handgun, but a shell remained in the chamber.

Going to the gun show in Fredericksburg this weekend?

People with any familiarity with guns raised an amused eyebrow at American-born Al Qaeda spokesman Adam Gadahn's claim that at gun shows in the U.S., one could buy "a fully automatic assault rifle, without a background check, and most likely without having to show an identification card." Fully automatic firearms are, of course, very heavily regulated in the U.S. The inconvenient little fact of Gadahn's lie was not enough to stop various "gun control" groups from milking this new "crisis" for all it's worth (although they did eventually start to simply omit mention of the "fully automatic" part). Rabidly anti-gun...