Are Gun Shows really worth attending?

[Ignition Override]

Frank Ettin: Whether or not I'm the only THR member who only began to visit gun shows when middle aged (age 52 in '07), at least many of you enjoyed better values and more milsurp rifles in original configuration.

Many gun enthusiasts make this claim about shows in the good old days. We might wake up years from now when all shows have become illegal-as recently happened in Southaven MS.

We can then tell sons or daughters about the good old days of 2014, before politicians, the Internet and indifference combine to smother the ability to handle so many types for the first...or last time-in One Place.

 

[Swing]

Are Gun Shows really worth attending?

No, imho, they are a complete waste of time in this day and age. Time was they could be fun and/or you could something you "needed". In this market, plus the web, why bother.

 

[slumlord44]

Been going to gun shows within 90 minutes of home with two friends for many years. A bad gun show to me is better than a morning sitting at home with the wife watching Lifetime TV. Have lots of acquaintances at all the shows. Sometimes sell stuff. Sometimes buy stuff. Sometimes neither. They are an institution unique to this country. If we fail to support them they will disappear and you will no longer have to complain about them.

 

[MagnunJoe]

I think every gun lover should attend 1 gun show per calendar year just to see what's going on and to keep current. It's also fun to shoot the breeze! Hehehehe

 

[F-111 John]

I'm going to my local Gun Show on Friday. When you consider how much it costs to go to the movies, its cheap entertainment even if I don't buy a thing.

 

[Capybara]

Gun shows in SoCal are basically not gun shows anymore. There are very few actual guns at the shows here. Mostly Airsoft, jewelry, swap meet junk, beef jerky. The one exception I still go to is the Santa Barbara Historic Arms and Blade Show. Lots of good C&Rs, antiques and edged weapons. Also lots of museum quality displays and collections that aren't for sale but really fun to look at.

Some of the owners of these collections are really fanatics, have written books about their area of expertise, I talked to guy who had an amazing collection of Nambus. The show also displays military vehicles, dioramas, uniforms. Not a huge show but always enjoyable.