No Brass Knuckles

Besides some great shooting, I had a chance to go to my first gun show while on Christmas vacation. I definitely had some preconceptions going in based on things I'd heard and read. I was expecting a small militia and/or neo-Nazi contingent, a huge assortment of jerky and lots of dusty, rusty gear at great prices. Well, I wasn't too disappointed.

Upon entering the fairground pavilion where the Gun & Knife Show was being held, a friendly, older woman asked if I wanted the 1-, 2- or 3-day pass and if I had any guns on me. "Just a pocket knife. And one day will do. Thanks." She stamped my hand.

Going on a Friday, I was missing out on some of the vendors that didn't come in until Saturday morning, but the pavilion was still a good two-thirds full. The majority of items for sale were guns and gun parts. Being from Chicago, these interested me only marginally as I could buy none of them without the hassle of getting them transferred from FFL to FFL. Most I had seen or read about before. It was fun to get my hands on an M1A and an M1A SOCOM-16, though. Much heavier than I'd have guessed; I can better understand the 5.56 vs. .308 rifle debate now.

There was a surprisingly small selection of dried meat products, much to my disappointment. My hopes of bringing home some ostrich jerky went unfulfilled. I did, however, pick up a nice scope. I gave the fellow a low-ball offer (my haggling skills aren't great, so I went right to my cutoff price) and, to my surprise, he took it. Many of the vendors were profficient salespeople. Others were not. One fellow was trying to sell me on a knife that had a very unique way of deploying and stowing the blade. "It's a great little knife. Retails for $50. I usually sell 'em for $20 but Chuck down there's selling 'em for $10, so I have to. The operation is kinda' neat. Not very intuitive." Hmm...$50 down to $10. A tool that's not intuitive...that's never a good thing. I passed.

As for the neo-Nazis, well, there was some historical Nazi gear. Difficult to say whether the sellers' interests were historical or more, shall we say, "political." No Nazi salutes or "hate talk" were observed.

Perhaps the funniest thing I took away, other than the interesting crowd, was an announcement on the P.A. shortly after I arrived. "We've just received a report that someone's selling brass knuckles in here. You can't be selling those. You gotta' get 'em out of here. No brass knuckles allowed." The fellows handling AK-47s (semi-auto only, of course) nearby just chuckled. I'm sure the guys buying new concealed carry handguns and those at the knife tables all shared a moment, as well. A good time was had by all.