Gun Show

Sunday afternoon the son-in-law and I headed into town for a little "guy-time". He is still recuperating from repairs to his collar bone following a minor motorcycle mishap, and has been limited a bit in getting out and about. A gun show in north Austin was our recreational goal.

Gun shows are self-justifying events. Just as no woman needs a reason to go shopping at Neiman-Marcus, men are always ready to wander up and down the rows of crowded tables. We visit firearms exhibits to breathe in the heady aroma of gun oil and solvent...emerging revitalized and refreshed after marinating in this gunpowder and testosterone rich environment.

Although no excuse is necessary, we did have some rather vague goals for our visit. I was wanting to look over the selection of Russian made rifles, including some of the AK variants as well as the civilian rifles now becoming available. After spending the last year in Iraq, the son-in-law was to be my subject matter expert. At the same time, he was wanting to evaluate some of the newer 9mm pistols as possible replacement carry pieces.

Sadly, although we were able to find what we were looking for, we emerged empty handed at the end of the day. We fell victim to our own need to go into this wholesale free-for-all armed with as much information as we could. The guns were there, and finding interesting ones was not difficult. However, when we began checking prices, it was painfully obvious that the heyday of the Great American Gun Show has faded. Weapons were generally marked up 50% - 100% over prices available on-line. One table had stock Saiga rifles(about $400 online) marked at $1,395.00, and wouldn't budge a cent. Heavily used SKS rifles were marked, but not selling, at around $350, rather than the approximate $150 found online. If you didn't mind scouring off layers of Cosmoline, you could get an SKS for just under $300...but you couldn't tell what the condition was under the congealed grease. If you just didn't have any idea of prevailing prices, you could have spent a lot of money and walked out with some "treasure".

We fared somewhat better while looking at pistols. Most of these were new, and pricing was pretty consistent from vendor to vendor. After an hour of hefting black handguns, they all began to look and feel alike. Sensory overload kicked in, and energy levels began to wane. What was a little surprising, was we both ended up gravitating toward the same couple of pistols, with the new Beretta PX4 Storm emerging as our mutual favorite. Now all we need is an extra 6 or 700 dollars each and our wives in a generous mood.

After getting home, I kept pondering how different this gun show was from past events I had attended. At shows in Houston or San Antonio in the 70's and 80's, the atmosphere was more of a group of guys getting together to spend time together, swap stories, and maybe sell something to pay for the table rental. Family groups were common, and while there was plenty of junk being offered, there were always those unexpected bargains if you looked hard enough.

Yesterday, there was an almost frantic feel, as shoppers rushed about looking for something they could afford. It felt a lot like last minute shopping on Christmas Eve. Gun magazines and conservative media have been loudly warning about the expected coming crackdown on gun rights under the new Democratic regime. Shooters have been told to stock up and get ready for the coming political, economic, and social turmoil which is going to overtake our country at any moment! It seems another casualty of our country's political battles is the gun show as we knew it.