...and gasoline it was today when I drove about a 270 mile round trip to attend the gun show in Bonham, TX today. I know, Sundays are slow days at gun shows as opposed to Saturdays but I still would have expected more than 36 attendees, including myself, inside the event hall when I got there. I suppose that was an excellent sign that I was not going to be able to sell either of the two AR-15 style rifles, nor the Colt Lord Deringer (SIC) 2 Derringer set in 22 Short, nor the High Standard DM-101 Derringer in 22 Mag, nor the Glock 19 GEN5 9 mm pistol I had brought along.
In fact, that sign in essence pointed me back home with all of the guns I had brought along. It had to be one of the most terrible gun shows I have ever attended. There were several tables with no dealers at them and nothing on them. Of course, there also were the usual mix of tables with guns, tables with knives, tables with accessories, and tables with junk that never should be seen at a gun show. As for the tables with guns, I did not see one gun get removed from the table, paid for, and walk out the door with a happy buyer. Prices on ammo were very high but lower than they then they would have been two months ago. Prices of guns were somewhere beyond the stratosphere, for example a well used Ruger 10/22 standard model, with a wooden stock, a piece of junk old scope, and a 30 round magazine had a price tag on it of $475.00. A DPMS AR-15 had a price tag with $1,200.00 on it! I was there for about an hour and a half before leaving in disgust.
I would not have travelled there in the first place if there were more gun shows near Texarkana on the Texas side of the Texas-Arkansas border; thus allowing me to sell rifles, shotguns and handguns to anyone with a Texas driver's license without having to go through a dealer with an FFL. In the future though, I will not bother with that show again as long as my little grey cells can remember how disgusted I felt when I was there today. If I somehow come to remember that I was there last year as well, I may just have to kick myself in my own arse once or twice to make sure I remember next year not to go again. Truth be told, I really do not want to be reminded if I was there before and returned again today because if that is the case, I deserve a really hard kick.
All the best,
Glenn B
