Posted on 01/06/2013 5:22:02 AM PST by Perseverando
Although antique firearms attracted some attention, many people bought modern weapons.
When folks visited Jerry Cochran's tables at Saturday's gun show in the Roanoke Civic Center, they were mainly purchasing high-capacity magazines and guns such as the AR-15.
Cochran, who runs two Trader Jerry's gun shops in Cedar Bluff and in Salem, said he believed fear was driving many of his customers at Saturday's show, hosted by Blacksburg-based promotion company Showmasters.
"It's a fear of the government prohibiting what they want," he said, "which is their right to own guns."
Saturday's show filled the civic center with a large variety of people, including babies in strollers, older people and everyone in between, buying and selling everything from guns, knives and gun accessories and parts to items such as jewelry, collectable coins, T-shirts, military surplus items, stun guns and even beef jerky.
While there was much variety to be found, fears of potential government firearms control in the wake of incidents such as the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting in Newtown, Conn., loomed large in the minds of attendees.
"Obama has done everything he said he would so far," Cochran said, indicating he believed the president may propose laws to limit or ban certain types of guns, including assault-style rifles such as the AR-15 and high-capacity magazines.
Showmasters has been bringing gun shows to the civic center for 41 years. Showmasters owner and President Annette Elliott said business has boomed in recent weeks. At the end of the day on Saturday, Elliott said the show had sold about 4,600 tickets and had about 200 more people register or renew their National Rifle Association dues.
Gun sales were up across the state last year. Virginia State Police released a report showing that the Virginia Firearms Transaction center performed background checks on 75,120 people during December, 33,163 more than the December 2011 total. Additionally, the 432,987 checks performed in 2012 was 111,221 more than the 2011 tally.
The few private sellers at Saturday's show said they also attempted to find out their customers' motives, even if they were not licensed to check the backgrounds of potential buyers.
James Worth of Lexington was selling his personal guns at a small table during Saturday's show. Worth collects and occasionally sells guns as a hobby; his main profession is running his own private clinical psychology practice, which he's been doing for 45 years. He acknowledged, especially as a psychologist, that mental health is a "tricky problem" when buying and selling firearms.
Worth said he supports the idea of a database of people who have histories of mental health problems that could be searched when they try to buy guns. He said he tries to keep his customers accountable, even though he can't check their backgrounds in VCheck, and prefers to sell to customers with concealed carry permits.
Elliot blamed mental health budget cuts and the saturation of pop culture with violent video games and movies as reasons for the seeming increase in incidents such as mass shootings.
But she doesn't think recent incidents like the Sandy Hook shooting were the only reason people went shopping at the show. Many of the guns at Saturday's show were collectibles that aren't necessarily for use.
Randy Clark, the president of Clark Collectible Arms in Roanoke, had guns at his table that dated to the 1910s, and he said he has guns in his shop that date to the Revolutionary War. He said he was selling many of the older guns for two to three times what he had originally paid for them several years ago.
"They keep going up in value," he said. "It's a good investment."
Elliott characterized the show as a "shopping mall" for firearms enthusiasts of all kinds. She said bringing many dealers together under one show enabled customers to get good prices on items, as well as information and training. Concealed carry classes were being offered during the show from 11 a.m. until 2:30 p.m. for $45.
Cochran said he felt a concealed carry permit was one of the best things a gun owner could have. "The only thing you can do about a bad person with a gun," he said, "is a good person with a gun."
There is a different breeze in the air now than when the first assault weapons ban hit. It is so thick I can almost feel it.
I stopped by the two largest dealers in this area in the last two days. They have both had a good number of AR type rifles and I did not notice any of them being sold.
Now the shelves are bare.
People know this president is serious about controlling the country by controlling the people. You can’t control the recalcitrant without controlling weapons. The most useful weapons are guns.
Ahem. “High-capacity magazines” ??? Those are STANDARD-capacity magazines. . . .
tomkat, I think they've devolved down from mere "sheople". They're now low-information voters (in a less politically correct age, we used to call them morons). Unfortunately for the health of the nation, they're now a majority of the voting public.
Thanks to Travis McGee for use of the graphic!
When I was “debating” with some liberal about the intellect of libs vs cons, I pointed out MW, SJL, and Cynthia McKinney as examples of stupid elected democrats. Of course I was immediately a “racist” due to my sample.
My reply was that it wasn’t MY fault that the stupidest people in DC were black female democrats, it was their constituents’ fault.
A local gun shop has 20 round mags for my Mini 14 for $50.
“While those that I mentioned happen to be black... the dumbest creature amongst them all is nancy pelosi... I guess that is racist also”?
LLS
I was at a hunting store yesterday. As was the case at Wal-mart, the 410 shotgun rounds were depleted. Must be a lot of us with Taurus Judges.
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