Posted on 01/22/2013 5:36:06 PM PST by Second Amendment First
On Tuesday afternoon, The Sportsman's Shop in New Holland was the last major gun dealer from Lancaster County still scheduled to attend the Eastern Sports and Outdoor Show in Harrisburg.
On Tuesday evening, owner Joe Keffer pulled the plug.
"As a member of the Board of Governors of the National Shooting Sports Foundation, I have been working, in good faith, with Reed to find a compromise to allow the show to continue at the caliber to which my fellow exhibitors, manufacturers and the more than 200,000 attendees have come to expect," Keffer wrote on the store's Facebook page.
"After nearly a month of discussions, which concluded (Monday), I believe a compromise will not be reached."
The Sportsman's Shop joins a growing list of nearly 200 exhibitors and celebrities who have backed out of the show, scheduled for Feb. 2-10 at the State Farm Show Complex in Harrisburg, since organizer Reed Exhibitions last week announced a ban prohibiting assault weapons and high-capacity ammunition magazines from being sold or even displayed at the show.
Reed said the decision was made "not to include certain products that in the current climate may attract negative attention that would distract from the strong focus on hunting and fishing at this family-oriented event and possibly disrupt the broader positive experience of our guests."
Reed officials said there were five firearms retailers affected by the gun ban — retailers who planned to sell semiautomatic AR-style rifles at the show. Three of those are from Lancaster County — Trop Gun Shop in Elizabethtown, Kinsey's Outdoors in Mount Joy and The Sportsman's Shop.
Trop and Kinsey's both backed out last week.
The Sportsman's Shop was set to be the featured exhibitor of a popular section of the show called The Sportsman's Shop's Gun Alley, which included 14 firearms and accessories manufacturers.
According to Keffer, when he backed out of the show all 14 of those other exhibitors left with him. That list includes gunmakers Smith & Wesson, Thompson/Center, Ruger, Benelli, Franchi and Stoeger.
"This was the hardest decision I've ever had to make in business," Keffer said. "I tried to get this thing turned around and it just didn't happen."
Keffer denounced Reed's ban the day it was announced, but he stayed in the show as an exhibitor, he said, while working to convince Reed officials to change their minds.
"As of (Monday) afternoon, as far as I was concerned, the door was slammed," he said.
Reed officials did not immediately return a reporter's phone calls for comment Tuesday.
He wasn’t dead in 1994.
As a CA resident I'm not sure what exactly you hope that would accomplish. It would punish all the pro gun people in those states while delighting the antis that passed those laws in the first place. It certainly wouldn't make the liberals who run the place repeal those laws. In addition, it would hurt the manufacturers, possibly even enough to put some out of business, which would be bad for gun owners in general. Doesn't make sense to me.
Yeah I know, But why would they sell to Government Agencies??
Seems to me that is wilfully and knowingly selling firearms to Criminals.
Probably Queen Elizabeth or David Cameron. Reed’s Exhibitions is a Brit company, or so I have been lead to believe.
Piers Morgan maybe?
One can only hope!
The saddest piece of fallout with respect to this is that the gun-grabbers will claim victory. They will claim that “they” stopped the big, bad gun industry from hawking their evil wares.
Maybe Obama and Holder can have a bunch of Mexican drug cartel soldiers show up just for appearance sake.
I think people should learn just who Reed is, and this may help a bit:
I see eyeamok replied to your post but I read it that mfgrs shouldn’t sell to those states, not that they shouldn’t sell to citizens of those states. I.e., they could sell to my nephew who lives in NY but not to Andy Cuomo’s state govt.
At current gun show prices, three AR-15 sales will cover the price of the booth.
Have you bought Japanese products since December 7th, 1941?
So, I went to my other local gun shop and was able to buy 200 rounds of pistol ammo. They are limiting ammo purchases to 200 rounds per customer to give everybody a chance. Hand loading supplies were tight too: no brass, primers hard to get, etc. I was also interested in seeing what I could get in revolvers. They used to have a case-full, but now had only two .22-cal revolvers. Everything is back-ordered.
It seems to me that refusing to sell arms and ammo in California wouldn't change things much in the San Francisco Bay Area. The heightened demand caused by our whacky left-wing governor, Dem legislators and moonbat enablers are doing the job already. We are locally notorious for being ground zero for Feinstein, Boxer and Pelosi!
Fairly senseless comparison. A FReeper chooses not to purchase from a specific manufacturer because of a political position its head took 19 years ago vs. buying (or not) from an unspecified manufacturer in a country that was an enemy 70 years ago, but today is an ally and trading partner.
Barrett, who makes the famous .50 cal, refuses to sell to any law agency in CA and he will not service the weapons, to this day...
That would only hurt the law-abiding, gun owning public.
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