Posted on 02/09/2013 2:57:00 PM PST by Libloather
CHANTILLY, Va. — The largest gun show in the D.C. area has raised its admission fee to help bankroll its fight against President Obama’s push for tighter firearm restrictions.
Thousands of gun enthusiasts are descending upon the “Nation’s Gun Show” at the Dulles Expo Center this weekend and, for the first time in five years, are being greeted with a higher cost of entry as the gun rights community wages a tough, and costly, campaign to stop Obama and Congress from stiffening certain gun laws.
“Admission has gone up because we are using the money to fight so you can keep and bear your guns,” read the sign on the front doors to the gun show.
“We have already spent $25,000 this year to stop impending legislation by hiring lawyers, lobbyists, and writing bills.”
Entry lines stretching around the giant exhibition center resulted in waits of up to 30 minutes on opening day Friday afternoon as parked cars spilled over into the neighboring shopping plaza less than 15 miles from the resort where House Democrats at their annual retreat just a day earlier unveiled proposals for an assault weapons ban, a limit on magazine capacity, and universal background checks for gun buyers.
It was no mistake that out of the estimated 1,000 tables displaying guns, ammunition, scopes, and an expanse of other firearm-related products, the steadily paced stream of gun buyers slowed to a stop in front of the dealers hawking assault-style weapons and high-capacity magazines.
“Got to get them while you can,” said one man, who had just purchased an AR-15 assault-style weapon for $1,599 and a 42-round clip for $45. He did not want to be identified.
Also trying to cash in on the largely Democratic move to revamp the country’s gun laws, the National Rifle Association (NRA) was offering to cover attendees’ admission costs if they paid $30 for a one-year membership or $300 for a lifetime membership.
A spokesman for the NRA said it wouldn’t release the number of new or renewed members who signed up at the show until the end of the weekend. But the group has said its ranks have rapidly risen since the elementary school shooting in Newtown, Conn. last December that killed 20 children and 6 adults.
Many gun rights proponents hold that gun violence will not be diminished by restricting people’s access to guns, but rather by increasing the number of responsible gun owners who can protect innocent people.
One woman’s t-shirt at the gun show read: “How do you stop a bad man with a gun? A good man with a gun.”
The majority of gun dealers who presided over tables with locked handguns, rifles, and assault-style weapons were seated behind a computer and a stack of clipboards with IDs and paperwork attached, running background checks that look for felony convictions or other red flags that could prevent someone from buying a gun.
But the gun show, like many throughout the country, also allowed for private sales, which don’t impose a sales tax and don’t require a background check.
At least a dozen private dealers meandered through the expansive exhibition center on Friday with secured assault-style weapons slung over their shoulders. Cardboard signs taped to rods stuck out of their gun’s barrel. One read: “AR-15, 5.56mm, Make me an offer!”
Many Democrats, the president, and some Republicans argue that it should be illegal to sell a gun without conducting a background check, even if it’s a private sale, in order to ensure that criminals, those with mental illnesses, or people otherwise prohibited from owning guns aren’t able to easily buy them.
The NRA and some gun rights groups worry that mandatory background checks for all gun sales would spur the creation of a government-run database, listing the personal identifying information of every gun owner in the country, which would infringe on privacy rights.
Signs at several gun tables cautioned potential buyers from purchasing a weapon with the intention of then selling it privately to someone forbidden from buying the gun: a process known as straw purchasing. The signs warned that such actions could carry 10-year jail sentences with them if the straw buyer is caught.
One of the only bipartisan pieces of gun-related legislation to emerge from the House and Senate this year focuses on straw purchasing and would increase the penalty from 10 years to 20 years.
Since 2008, the price of the D.C.-area gun show has been $12. This weekend the price was raised to $13 per day.
Nope, no intentional lying here....no mischaracterization at all! Just a completely unbiased report.
Sick of the price gougers. I know, I know, it’s market capitalism, but there’s no reason 40 s&w should cost 25+ per box.
Since 2008, the price of the D.C.-area gun show has been $12. This weekend the price was raised to $13 per day.Wow!! The price went up by a whole buck over a 5-year time span. (And it's the last thing mentioned in the article.)
42 round clip for an AR? Maybe if you have strong thumbs. ???
We should be glad someone is willing to make a market...at any price.
“Sick of the price gougers.”
How many times have you heard the term ‘BLOAT’ over your past nine years here at FR?
Should of listened to those who knew this was going to happen.
Which is why I'm not a Republican. They can pound sand.
/johnny
I sold three handguns today, at a country auction where I also sold some tools and equipment. The auctioneer was nervous about selling my handguns (a S&W model 29, a CZ-53-2, and a small cheap .22 automatic) but he arranged for a private buyer to pay $800 cash for all three guns.
Normal people selling and buying articles of use.
TC
After thinking it over, I came to the conclusion that ammo will be much more valuable than gold.
Just think of the delicious squirrel stew that a handful of 22 LR's can produce.
I have been feeding the neighborhood squirrels for years...so I don't think they will mind feeding me if the tables are turned.;-)
Our local show this weekend went from $8 per to $10 per. The plac e was packed, as usual. I sold a .45 acp pistol but didn’t find a buyer for the 9mm Sub 2000 with two 35 rd mags and a 12 rd mag + barrel mount with red alser and grip attachment plus cgarging handle device. I was twice offered $850 for it, so the $950 I had on it was probably right. Selling it and an AR 15 psitol with CMMG piston kit on it tomorrow.
Private dealer? Is that like an amateur doctor?
And they always talk about background checks stopping the mentally ill. How is that possible when there is no reporting and no database of the mentally ill?
The mentally ill asre easy to find ... they work in the media, like Hissy-fit Matthews, Jerry Rivers, All can’t Colmes, Bob Brickheadel, Piece-of-crap Morgan, Rachel ‘Mad cow’, etc.
I just got back from this. It was a nice father and son trip. It was packed, I learned a lot, and the NRA got two new members (free admission to the show if you join up).
Never heard that term, but I should have bought some stuff nonetheless.
What’s a “private dealer”?
Is there ONE literate journalist in this country? Do they ever even proof read their copy?
Back in the late 70s or early 80s NatGeo magazine ran a multi-part serial, which was itself an abridged version of a book by a guy who had walked across America, taking little odd jobs along the way to support himself and writing about his experiences.
I was probably about 10 or 12 when I read the story at the time, but one of the impressions that remains with me to this day was his encounter with an older gentleman somewhere in the midwest (Iowa or Nebraska?) who had survived the great depression by eating pigeons. After he got back on his feet, he made a point of going to a local park every day and feeding them. He had been doing so for some 30 or 40 years or so at the time of the article.
Nice story.
Now I’m mad at the NRA. They’ve never offered me the $300 deal for a lifetime membership!
Suddenly, Eddie felt something land on the top of his cap. It was a seagull! Old Ed would later describe how he sat perfectly still, planning his next move. With a flash of his hand and a squawk from the gull, he managed to grab it and wring its neck. He tore the feathers off, and he and his starving crew made a meal - a very slight meal for eight men - of it. Then they used the intestines for bait. With it, they caught fish, which gave them food and more bait......and the cycle continued.
With that simple survival technique, they were able to endure the rigors of the sea until they were found and rescued. (after 24 days at sea...)
Eddie Rickenbacker lived many years beyond that ordeal, but he never forgot the sacrifice of that first lifesaving seagull. And he never stopped
saying, ‘Thank you.’ That’s why almost every Friday night he would walk to the end of the pier with a bucket full of shrimp and a heart full of
gratitude.
(Max Lucado, In The Eye of the Storm, pp.221, 225-226)
http://www.truthorfiction.com/rumors/r/rickenbacker.htm#.URcFDR00WSo
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