This was the first complete waste of time at the Chantilly show I've ever experienced. I got there at 2pm (an hour before opening), and unlike the ridiculously long ticket lines an hour before previous shows, I walked right up to the ticket/hand-stamping place and took a place in line maybe 50 feet from the door. The waiting line formed slower than usual and didn't wrap around the building unlike what I expected this close to Obama II and the attendant gun-control fears and early panic buying. The crowd seemed to be maybe half or two-thirds as big as usual for Friday afternoon. Even the conspicuous bizarro types it's fun to people-watch at gun shows seemed to be in short supply. There were several vendors' tables empty, and more of the merchandise than usual seemed to be run of the mill and overpriced. Even the normally-jammed Trader Jerry tables weren’t very crowded the two or three times I walked those aisles. Fortunately, the candy and cheap jewelry sellers who usually aggressively annoy people looking at gun stuff were also noticeably absent on Friday. The usual Colt Python purveyors had some used, blued 6-inchers that were in the $1800 asking range last show ($1300 about a year ago) for $2300 and thereabouts. Maybe it was because they were in new replica Colt boxes.
A friend who works at a gunshop/range tells me he heard a rumor that there will be only 2 or 3 more Nation's Gun Shows, at least at the Expo Center, because WalMart has bought the property.
). I'll probably go back on Sunday.
