Free Republic

I continuously see claims that "we must close the gunshow loophole" in the MSM. But on FR most people seem to assume there is no such loophole. I've tried to research exactly what this loophole is supposed to be, but one side seems to take its existence as self-evident and therefore needing no definition, and the other as an equally obvious negative. I would really appreciate an explanation of what this loophole is supposed to be, and perhaps of why it isn't one.

South Central LA Tea Party Founder Rev. Jesse Lee Peterson and supporters along with the NRA and concerned citizens showed up in force to a recent Glendale City Council hearing on banning gun shows. Countless Second Amendment advocates spoke eloquently and factually about how banning gun shows does nothing to make communities safer. Defying logic and common sense the City Council and mayor voted 3-2 to ban future gun shows. They also made it a crime to possess legally purchased firearms on city property. The council meeting was packed and Second Amendment supporters outnumbered the gun grabbers at least...

"You have any .22?," I asked a dealer pricing boxes of ammunition at his table. "Nope," he answered. "There's none in here." He was right. Nothing. Not at any table. I grabbed a few boxes of overpriced 9mm for the Glock and knew that was all I was taking home.

Line to get into gun show over a mile long. I believe it consists of ticket holders as well as non-ticket holders. Mark tried to get a ticket, however he stated the website crashed!

Long Lines at Tucson Gun Show, by LennyJoe LennyJoe posted this report: Just wanted to pass on some views on what I seen this weekend at the Tucson gun show I went to on Saturday. First off, it was a good thing that we purchased tickets online. When we got there, about 1.5 hours before the show opened, there were 2 lines. The line we were in, tickets on hand, had about 150 people ahead of us. The second line, ticket purchasers grew as time went on and when they finally started selling tickets around 0800, I would estimate about...

SOUTH CENTRAL TEA PARTY!! 2ND AMENDMENT AND FREEDOM RALLY!! WHO: South Central LA Tea Party (SCLA TP) WHAT: Second Amendment & Freedom Rally WHEN: Saturday, March 2nd from 12 Noon - 2 p.m. WHEN: Outside the Glendale Gun Show, 1401 North Verdugo Rd. Glendale CA 91208 (In Front of Glendale Civic Auditorium)

Long Lines into and out of Arizona Gun Show, 2013 Gun shows are centers of resistance to the nanny state. As resistance to the growing, all pervasive regulations and vague, impossible to decipher federal laws, grows in the heartland of America, gun shows offer a place where freedom is still practiced, and limits to State power are recognized. At most gun shows, if you are not a gun dealer, you are allowed to sell your personal firearm to another person without special permission from the nanny state. The stranglehold on political speech by the MSM is not so tight,...

Jerome McCorry organized a protest against a gun show, claiming that the gun show made it too easy to buy guns. Why did that worry him? Perhaps because because the easy availability of guns might have made his career as a rapist more dangerous. (via Instapundit) Outside of Bill Goodman’s Gun and Knife Show, people were protesting the sale of assault weapons. Those are the guns which the proposed bill would ban inside Hara Arena. “We know that guns are being sold on the floor inside Hara Arena illegally” said Jerome McCorry. “No background checks no identification of any kind.”...

There was an 1854 Lefaucheux pinfire pistol carbine on display, as well as an 1876 .22-caliber derringer in a glass box. But neither was for sale. It wouldn't have mattered if they were. The gun enthusiasts who showed up in Rosemont on Friday for what was billed as the first-ever Chicagoland Gun Show didn't seem interested in gawking at antique pistols. Some wanted to buy high-powered rifles, semi-automatic handguns and high-capacity magazines. But there wasn't a single gun dealer at the show, only a Chicago collector who said he was there to show off his collection. "I've been to a...

COSTA MESA (CBSLA.com) — A popular Orange County gun show may shatter attendance records this weekend. KNX 1070′s Pete Demetriou reports The Crossroads of the West gun show is expected to draw massive crowds as lawmakers in Washington consider a proposed federal ban on assault weapons. The event drew an estimated 18,000 attendees during its stop in Ontario earlier this month, marking the first local event since a shooting rampage that claimed the lives of 20 children and six adults in Newtown, Connecticut. But organizers are expecting attendance at the two-day event at the Orange County Fairgrounds in Costa Mesa...

Organizers of a Pennsylvania outdoors gun show have cancelled the event after a backlash over a ban on assault rifles. The nine-day Eastern Sports and Outdoor show was scheduled to begin in Harrisburg on Feb. 2. In a notice posted on its web site, Reed Exhibitions said an "emotionally charged atmosphere" had been created that would make it impossible to hold an event "designed to provide family enjoyment." The company’s reasons for a ban were laid out in a statement issued by Chet Burchett, Reed Exhibitions' regional president. "Our original decision not to include certain products in the Eastern Sports...

A massive boycott sparked by the NRA and other gun-rights groups outraged that the nation's largest outdoors show banned the exhibition of assault weapons has caused the show's organizers to abruptly cancel the week-long event in Harrisburg, Pa. The successful boycott was the biggest demonstration of support by the outdoors industry yet against gun control efforts being pushed in Washington and in several states. "Reed Exhibitions has decided to postpone, for now, the Eastern Sports and Outdoor Show given the controversy surrounding its decision to limit the sale or display of modern sporting rifles (also called ARs) at the event....

We the people have spoken.

Legislation aimed at requiring criminal-record checks for all firearm transactions at gun shows, including those by private sellers, won't advance this year, but members of a state Senate committee pledged Wednesday to work toward a compromise that could expand background checks on firearm purchases.

Mike Olien has been planning his first trip to the Eastern Sports and Outdoor Show for a year. His Texas-based company, MN Outdoors, planned the roll out for its new clip-on beverage holder when the show opens Feb. 2. MN specializes in duck decoys and hunting camera mounts. Its beverage holder isn't specifically designed for hunters. The company does not sell guns or gun accessories. But the Harrisburg show's new firearm policy has put Olien -- a "lifetime member of anything you can be a lifetime member of," an AR-15 owner and a strong gun control opponent -- in a...

Some big names in the hunting media and vending have stood up to the organizers of the Eastern Sports and Outdoors Show. Following the tragic shooting in December at Sandy Hook School in Connecticut, and President Obama’s sweeping executive orders on gun violence, many states and organizations have themselves pushed for changes in certain gun and ammunition restrictions. Reed Exhibitions, organizers of the show in Pennsylvania, followed suit and imposed restrictions on the display of assault weapons and high capacity ammunition magazines. From their web site: “As a hunting-focused event, we welcome exhibitors who wish to showcase products and firearms...

The Miami gun-show line stretched 200 people long. Many blamed President Barack Obama. This is what the president’s gun-control talk has wrought: long waits to get into gun shows, higher firearm and ammunition prices and more paranoia. The word “Obama” was frequently mumbled, muttered, hissed, cursed at Saturday’s Southern Classic Gun and Knife Show. “Obama” was a catch-all word, a gun-rights shibboleth of sorts, a no-longer-shocking swear, a conversation starter. To Calvin Hudson, a Miami Gardens resident bargain-hunting at the Miami-Dade fairgrounds firearms bazaar, the Obama-blaming was a sign people were being fooled into paying more in a firearms market...

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...