Posted on 07/30/2004 4:20:44 PM PDT by judywillow
Amongst the thing I've always figured I'd pay to watch, wouled be having a major sort of gunshow in either Arlington or Reston Va. What's happening this weekend is close enough to that; the C&E gunshow, i.e. the big one which you normally find in Richmond about once every three months, will be at the Dulles Expo Center Saturday and Sunday. Anybody living in the Northern Virginia area, if you've never been to a major gunshow and always wanted to, this is your opportunity.
;)
;)
I went to one of those rust and dust shows a few years ago at the racetrack in Richmond. It was interesting. I bought a 1917 vintage 1911 and nearly bought a Broomhandle.
You should go anyway. If you've got a C&R FFL I imagine that there will be tons of stuff there.
I'm sure many of the patrons will qualify for curio & relic status:-)
Fairfax County is site of gun expo after local ordinances overturnedAssociated PressSunday, August 1, 2004
CHANTILLY, Va. - Thanks to new laws that have made Virginia even more gun-friendly than before, an event organizers billed as "The Nation's Gun Show" was held this weekend in Fairfax County.
The two-day show at the Dulles Expo and Conference Center featured nearly 300 vendors offering pocketbook-sized pistols, semiautomatic weapons and Civil War-era swords, among other things.
"There's more guns than you can see," said Dick Berglund, 59, who had come from Silver Spring, Md., to look for pre-Civil War pieces.
Gun enthusiasts waited in lines several hundred people deep and squeezed through the packed show _ which occupied a space the size of nearly two football fields.
Organizers said it was one of Virginia's largest gun shows, and Fairfax County's first major show in decades. Northern Virginia gun enthusiasts have had to travel to Richmond or farther for major shows because of a local waiting period.
In the 1940s, Fairfax County began requiring handgun buyers to get permits from county police, which took three days. That delay discouraged gun shows _ most of which offer a dizzying array of handguns but usually only run two days.
This year, the Virginia General Assembly passed more than a dozen laws that further relaxed the state's gun regulations. One law overturned local gun ordinances, invalidating the Fairfax County requirement and opening the door to the Dulles arms extravaganza.
Lured by ads in trade journals, vendors came from as far as California and Michigan for the show, said Steven Elliott, president of C&E Gun Shows, which organizes more than 20 of the 70 gun shows held in Virginia each year.
"We've had a pent-up demand," said David Condon, owner of a Middleburg gun shop, whose display of antique firearms _ averaging about $4,000 each _ filled up five tables.
The sheer size of the show made it great for those, such as Harry Addis, 60, who were on the hunt for a particular piece. By midafternoon, the Bergton, Va., resident had scored a modern, never-before-fired Sako Vixen Deluxe rifle for $1,000.
"A lot of shows, they're just junky," said Addis, a computer engineer. "People here know what they're talking about."
Suburban nothern Virginia, where recent sightings of openly armed people in restaurants shocked some, might not seem to be the prime spot to peddle firearms. But Elliott said there are plenty of gun enthusiasts in the Washington area, and they have been thirsting for a show in their neighborhood. He said he expected 10,000 people to attend the show, which ended Sunday.
Elliott said the high incomes of many Fairfax County residents make the area a good gun market, too.
That sounded right to Tom Robinson, a Luray, Va., collector who was selling about 50 antique pieces, including an $8,800 Winchester rifle made in 1873. "These are your 401(k) types," he said, scanning the crowd.
Several of those who wandered through the crowd were looking to sell as much as to buy. Slung over their shoulders were guns tagged with handwritten "For Sale" signs.
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