The Nation's Gun Show

Went to the DC Gun Show at the Dulles Expo Center yesterday -- along with a couple of buddies.

It was farking cold! 27 degrees with a biting wind - ouch! The show's operators had mercy on those of us standing in-line waiting for the doors to open so they processed our admissions and then let us go back to defrost in our cars. Very considerate. BZ & thx.


Initially the crowd was pretty-much normal-sized, but more and more folks showed up until the place was packed around midday. Lots non-standard customers too -- a bunch of younger professional types (are camel-hair topcoats uniform-issue items?) and other folks who I've never seen there before. From talking to a number of the dealers, they are seeing MANY new faces among their customers.

This is very good in that we are expanding the base of the "gun-culture*". The only disconcerting thing is overhearing the questions being asked by a number of these nube gun-owners.
From "Does the magazine that I just bought fit my rifle?" to "How do I put the bullets into my new gun?", these questions showed that there's definitely a shortfall in firearms knowledge among first-time gun-owners. Ignorance is not necessarily a bad thing, so long as you are working to eliminate it.

FOR ALL NEW GUN-OWNERS: Please get yourself some official or unofficial training. Be safe out there!


Supply of Evil Black Rifles (EBRs) was not too bad, but prices were definitely spiking. AR lowers were up $50-100 from the norm. AKs were going for up to $1100 -- yegads!

Ammo was the big seller. Folks were slurping-up ammo (especially .223, .308, and 7.62X39 - but other stuff too) and reloading components like CRAZY.

I bought a few AK and AR mags. I'll order ammo online (I've already got ~10K rnds in-bound).

*Gun-Culture = Freedom-loving (small-L) libertarians