Posted on 04/13/2005 12:35:27 PM PDT by CCCnative
I am planning to attend a gun show in San Jose this weekend and have never been to one. What goes on there? Can you buy a pistol and leave with it? I am completely in the dark about what to expect. Any help would be much appreciated.
Rule 1 - Always ask before picking up anything.
Rule 2. If you do not have to fill out a form. Pay cash.
Do your homework with regard to pricing before you leave the house.
http://www.packing.org/
--go here for a start--
Rule 2. Go to a gun show in Reno, Nevada instead. Real cool stuff. California gun shows suck.
Generally speaking, I wouldn't attempt an armed robbery. But that's just me.
Haven't you watched the news? You can get bazookas, machine guns, and nuclear warheads without even a background check!!!!
Seriously, I don't know what the laws are in California, so I wouldn't know how it goes there, but in Georgia, you can purchase a hand gun and, after showing a concealed weapons permit which substitutes for the background check, you can walk out with it.
I'm sure a Californian can give you a better answer about how it will go there.
Lots of trading. Many around here bring firearms to deal with (trade). Don't know about Kaloporna
California has a seven day waiting period so any pistol or rifle that is not a collectible antique you'll have to wait a week after the show to go pick it up. Also, to purchase a pistol you need your Basic Firearms Safety Certificate which will require you to take a class and pass a test. This runs $40 to $100 depending on who you go to.
If you have an NRA or CRPA membership or are in the military reserve, police auxilliary, or other qualifying organization that promotes proper firearms handling and safety you can skip the class and just take the test.
If you have no firearms experience I'd recommend you take the class.
"Go to a gun show in Reno, Nevada instead. Real cool stuff. California gun shows suck."
Amen to that.
A FIELD GUIDE TO GUN SHOWS
By The Elitist
Gun shows are an old and honored American tradition. The basic idea-putting sellers, buyers, and stock in the same room and letting Free Market Forces go to work-is as old as commerce, but the American form of gun show has evolved its own manners, vocabulary, and etiquette.
Gun shows are run by and for dreamers. Every dealer who sets up a table seems to think that the people who attend are half-wits who will happily pay 25% more than manufacturer's suggested retail price for their goods; and all the attendees hold it as an article of faith that the exhibitors are desperate men who have come in the hopes of finally disposing of their stock at 30% less than wholesale cost.
In this environment it helps to have some idea what to expect; so for the benefit of those who are so unfortunate as never to have experienced this distinctively American form of mass entertainment, I offer this guide, the summation of what I've learned from 30 years of show-going. I've included a glossary of terms you'll need to know, and an introduction to some of the people you'll meet.
Just to clarify, if you don't have the permit, they just have to call in an "instant background check" that takes a few minutes..... but like I said, that's Georgia.
Sir - please drive yourself to Nancy Pelosi's California office and turn yourself in. You most certainly will be a criminal in no time if you decide to buy a gun. We can't have menaces like you roving the streets.
So, please, just do the right thing and turn yourself in.
Sincerely,
The California Democrat Party
"Go to a gun show in Reno, Nevada instead. Real cool stuff. California gun shows suck."
Then go to a strip club.
Mark, is unfortunately the guy who is taking over -on the advice of ShotgunNews a couple of months ago-- and is making gunshows not worth the bother--
I'm sure if CCCnative took anything back into Califronia he would be obliged to register it.
SD
I sold 32 guns out of maybe 60 I brought. I was asking fair to low prices for mine. A dealer right next to us had maybe 500 guns. He would watch our table when only one of us was there and wanted to take a break and vise-versa. At the end of the show he said he had only sold one gun.
The reason was obvious but he couldn't understand why no one would buy a gun at list price or maybe more.
Having attended many shows there will typically be one dealer who sells more than all the others put together. He is the only one with good prices. There will be many who want twice what they are worth and won't cut the price much if any.
Dealers will typically not buy from an individual at all and those who will usually will give around 35 to 40% of the actual wholesale value.
Once when I was in grad school, I needed to raise money. I had two new in the box H-bars. Both had the .22 conversion units with them. I had lucked out and bought both right before the ban from a good dealer and had around $750 in each.
Dealers were trying to get up to $2000 for theirs but I couldn't get one to give me what I paid.
There will usually be one individual, not a dealer, who has a lot of interesting stuff and has good prices.
A prior year's hunting license doesn't work anymore ?
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