Gun control advocates have a major switch across their ass about gun shows. The fact that Americans can buy and sell firearms without government oversight is a source of endless aggro. That they can do it in public is the ultimate affront to their sense of self-importance. It doesn’t matter that the vast majority of guns used in crimes are stolen property. Or that gun dealers at gun shows must run a background check on all firearms purchases. Close the “gun show loophole”! Every now and then these advocates wander into what the rest of us call the real world and visit an actual gun show. Needless to say, they’re about as open-minded about the experience as a PETA member at a chicken processing plant . . .
So here we go, courtesy of Christopher Evans of cleveland.com:
I’m walking the perimeter of a packed parking lot, checking out the acolytes of the apocalypse: a steady stream of well-fed white guys with semiautomatic assault rifles slung over both shoulders, some sporting handguns, all of them heeding the Nov. 7 call of right-wing radio host Glenn Beck to “get your kids out of the schools that are indoctrinating them . . . and don’t forget the ammunition.”
I’m at the Medina Gun Show. It’s Saturday morning. The Medina County Fairgrounds look like the staging site for a ragtag militia.
Hey! TTAG’s OFWGs resemble that remark! Anyway, I don’t think I have to break this down for our Armed Intelligentsia, other than to say that painting all gun show attendees as right wing nut jobs is nothing new. Or accurate.
I think Evans gets that. The first bit, I mean. The scribe knows he has to reach deep into his snarkenator to make this visit to the “dark side” more than a cookie-cutter polemic. To wit:
It’s my first gun show. I’m trying to keep an open mind about the firearm fetishists who frequent these death markets. I’m not doing a very good job.
The bumper stickers don’t help. “Abort Obama” captures the ambiance nicely.
A number of vehicles sport plates from West Virginia, Pennsylvania and Michigan.
I suspect Evans is trying to evade criticism by appealing to his readers’ xenophobia or whatever the word is for people who look down on residents of other states. Anyway, I’m sure there were plenty of other pro-2A bumper stickers which would have more perfectly captured the attitude of the gun show attendees.
One dealer, a weathered old guy who looks like he took one too many shots to the head, offers an AR 15 assault rifle he’s hand marked as an “Obama SPL.” The original price of $1,300 has been crossed out. The new price: $1,500.
“Supply and demand,” the dealer chuckles.
There are semiautomatic Black Rain Zombie Slayers; Hillary Rodham Clinton Urinal Targets; Hi-Point 9mm semiautomatic carbines (the choice of Eric Harris, one of the two shooters in the Columbine High School massacre); and laser-etched, stained-oak, assault-weapon stands with poems such as “Now I lay me down to sleep/Beside my bed an AR1 I keep/Should I wake and find you inside/The coroner’s van is your next ride.”
We interrupt this character and political affiliation assassination to bring you a message about weaving misleading “facts” in with vitriol: it’s not very appealing. As the only gun guy who lets MikeB302000 post on his blog, I know.
I talk to a tall, skinny guy selling a Kel-Tec Pf-9 9mm semiautomatic pistol. It’s popular with the conceal-carry crowd. George Zimmerman reportedly used a Pf-9 to kill Florida teen Trayvon Martin last February.
Hardly a collector’s item. The skinny guy agrees.
“I’m selling it for a buddy,” he says. “He was gonna get his CCW [permit]. Then he got laid off.”
I express interest. “I want to keep it simple,” I tell him.
“No background check,” he says. “No record of sale. Strictly cash. I do need to see an ID, make sure you’re an Ohio resident.”
“Forget that,” I say and turn away.
“Hey,” the guy whines. “Everything’s negotiable.”
Put that on the headstone of the next kid shot in Cleveland.
True story? I doubt it. But one thing’s for sure: someone needs to take Mr. Evans shooting. It’s about the only way you’ll ever educate someone like him, an intellectual who doesn’t understand that a condescending attitude doesn’t make you better than the objects of your derision. Quite the opposite, really.