wingedmonkey
Member
MOTHER OF ALL GUN SHOWS
COMING TO DULLES EXPO CENTER
Chantilly, Va.
(As appeared in Firearms Business Bulletin)
It’s already a heckuva show, folks, and it gets better as time passes. Page 8 carries an ad for the Nation’s Gun Show; and it is about as close to a national event as gun shows get.
This one was a gleam in Steve Elliott’s eye for several years. He could see all those people in that high income area up in Novaville and he thought that would be the greatest opportunity he could expect to find. There would also be people from Deleware, Maryland, Washington, D.C., West Virginia’s eastern flatlands and Pennsylvania, all in need of a good gun show.
It was easy enough to find a place for the big show. The folks at Dulles Expo Center, the envy of many exhibition hall operators, were all for it, too, and ready to make a deal as soon as the nice folks at C&E Gun Shows and Showmasters Gun Shows were able.
The down side of all that ‘up’ was the local gun sales regulations in Fairfax County. In Fairfax, a gun purchase would not always be delivered to the buyer within the time constraints of a gun show schedule.
To buy things that go, “bang†in Fairfax, and in some other localities, one would have to depend upon some other dealer to deliver the goods after the show, and of course, charge ten or twenty dollars for his service. That would slow down any gun show to a point of total frustration.
With that rock in the roadway, not much traffic would get through, and a gun show could quickly become a bankruptcy. For a long years, a Fairfax Gun Show was Steve’s unfulfilled ambition, and at times it seemed that it would be permanently unfulfilled.
He watched quietly as bill after bill was defeated at the General Assembly over the years. Hope could be maintained, because most of those bills took a little chip, each, out of the bad law, and helped it to become just a little weaker, even if it didn’t open Novaville up for a big show.
Then, Henrico County went and wrecked Fairfax County’s roadblock. Henrico seemed to be trying to put C&E, and Showmasters out of business in that county, starting with eliminating their smokeless powder and primer sales. As other business handicaps were heaped on by the county, the time soon came to fight it out at the legislature.
The war over smokeless powder and primers was temporarily lost, but in the process, the most successful legislative year in the history of gun control was stimulated by the action on powder and several other issues. Two bills passed eliminating the state code foundation for the Fairfax restrictions and a third repealed the “grandfather†protection of all existing local restrictions. When these actions become effective, localities may no longer have their own firearm controls.
After years of hard fought, incremental turning movements, successful efforts of new friends in the House of Delegates led by faithful veterans have changed gun law significantly. They organized committee and floor votes to produce results that firearm advocate groups supported and put Virginia on the road to recovery.
Local regulation was one of the toughest topics to win, but it came to a head in the 2004 legislature when all local gun control laws were repealed. The House and the Senate had disagreed on it for years, but disagreement were put aside. Gun issues became a place to find common ground as rifts appeared on taxes, and several other tough issues. As the repeal bills are signed, barriers are falling and Dulles Expo is now the site of the Nation’s Gun Show.
Now, everyone go and enjoy. See the map on page 6 to find Dulles Expo, and the ad on page 8 for more show information. You will you will love the Dulles Expo Center. It has good air conditioning, a good sound system, good rest rooms, wide aisles, plenty of open space behind tables, plenty of parking, good loading doors, great concessions, good lights, police protection, and great people to work with. Vendors will find it well worth the trip, and customers will be dazzled by a thousand show tables loaded with merchandize.
The combined efforts of C&E, which primarily attracts modern arms vendors, and Showmasters which brings out antiques and relics, promise the best of both worlds, all in one place. With the addition of all of the other merchandize it will take a day to just look it all over. You just can’t miss the Nation’s Gun Show, so make your plans early. A Holiday Inn is on site.
The next FIREARM BUSINESS BULLETIN will be printed in late June, 2004. VSSA (www.myvssa.org) reproduced news and opinions from the April issue of the FBB with permission from the publisher, Steven Elliott, President & CEO of C&E Gun Shows.
COMING TO DULLES EXPO CENTER
Chantilly, Va.
(As appeared in Firearms Business Bulletin)
It’s already a heckuva show, folks, and it gets better as time passes. Page 8 carries an ad for the Nation’s Gun Show; and it is about as close to a national event as gun shows get.
This one was a gleam in Steve Elliott’s eye for several years. He could see all those people in that high income area up in Novaville and he thought that would be the greatest opportunity he could expect to find. There would also be people from Deleware, Maryland, Washington, D.C., West Virginia’s eastern flatlands and Pennsylvania, all in need of a good gun show.
It was easy enough to find a place for the big show. The folks at Dulles Expo Center, the envy of many exhibition hall operators, were all for it, too, and ready to make a deal as soon as the nice folks at C&E Gun Shows and Showmasters Gun Shows were able.
The down side of all that ‘up’ was the local gun sales regulations in Fairfax County. In Fairfax, a gun purchase would not always be delivered to the buyer within the time constraints of a gun show schedule.
To buy things that go, “bang†in Fairfax, and in some other localities, one would have to depend upon some other dealer to deliver the goods after the show, and of course, charge ten or twenty dollars for his service. That would slow down any gun show to a point of total frustration.
With that rock in the roadway, not much traffic would get through, and a gun show could quickly become a bankruptcy. For a long years, a Fairfax Gun Show was Steve’s unfulfilled ambition, and at times it seemed that it would be permanently unfulfilled.
He watched quietly as bill after bill was defeated at the General Assembly over the years. Hope could be maintained, because most of those bills took a little chip, each, out of the bad law, and helped it to become just a little weaker, even if it didn’t open Novaville up for a big show.
Then, Henrico County went and wrecked Fairfax County’s roadblock. Henrico seemed to be trying to put C&E, and Showmasters out of business in that county, starting with eliminating their smokeless powder and primer sales. As other business handicaps were heaped on by the county, the time soon came to fight it out at the legislature.
The war over smokeless powder and primers was temporarily lost, but in the process, the most successful legislative year in the history of gun control was stimulated by the action on powder and several other issues. Two bills passed eliminating the state code foundation for the Fairfax restrictions and a third repealed the “grandfather†protection of all existing local restrictions. When these actions become effective, localities may no longer have their own firearm controls.
After years of hard fought, incremental turning movements, successful efforts of new friends in the House of Delegates led by faithful veterans have changed gun law significantly. They organized committee and floor votes to produce results that firearm advocate groups supported and put Virginia on the road to recovery.
Local regulation was one of the toughest topics to win, but it came to a head in the 2004 legislature when all local gun control laws were repealed. The House and the Senate had disagreed on it for years, but disagreement were put aside. Gun issues became a place to find common ground as rifts appeared on taxes, and several other tough issues. As the repeal bills are signed, barriers are falling and Dulles Expo is now the site of the Nation’s Gun Show.
Now, everyone go and enjoy. See the map on page 6 to find Dulles Expo, and the ad on page 8 for more show information. You will you will love the Dulles Expo Center. It has good air conditioning, a good sound system, good rest rooms, wide aisles, plenty of open space behind tables, plenty of parking, good loading doors, great concessions, good lights, police protection, and great people to work with. Vendors will find it well worth the trip, and customers will be dazzled by a thousand show tables loaded with merchandize.
The combined efforts of C&E, which primarily attracts modern arms vendors, and Showmasters which brings out antiques and relics, promise the best of both worlds, all in one place. With the addition of all of the other merchandize it will take a day to just look it all over. You just can’t miss the Nation’s Gun Show, so make your plans early. A Holiday Inn is on site.
The next FIREARM BUSINESS BULLETIN will be printed in late June, 2004. VSSA (www.myvssa.org) reproduced news and opinions from the April issue of the FBB with permission from the publisher, Steven Elliott, President & CEO of C&E Gun Shows.
