Rather than just restate your case again in different words, please tell me what stores you frequent where it is understood that customers may not handle merchandise that is placed on public display (i.e. not under glass, roped off, behind the counter, etc.).
You seem bent on being the kind of person I try very hard not to be, so "restating" my position will do no good as it seems lost on you. I've already stated it in unequivocal terms.
Are there some items that are place on display so that you can handle them? Yes. Cleaning supplies, holsters, clothing, are all usually on open display. Guns, on the other hand (especially handguns) are usually cased. And they are cased for a reason - A) They have inherent, concentrated value, and B) Liability.
You usually have to ask to see a handgun in a gun
shop. Why, then, do you feel that they rules change just because you are at a gun
show. Just because they didn't haul all their glass cases in from their store doesn't mean that the rules change. Guns are still guns - they still have value and the seller still has liability. The only thing that changed was the mindset of the browsers.
And I used the term "browsers" instead of "customers" for a reason. Watch around a show sometime and you will see two kinds of people. The first kind are the ones who hit every table and fondle every gun
just because they can. These are the people that get in a huge hissy fit when someone tells them not to handle the guns unless they intend to buy. Then there are the people that look at every table, but when they want to see a specific gun they politely
ask the table host if they may see it. Guess which kind of people usually leaves the show with a new gun and which one doesn't?
There's a reason why gun shows have deteriorated to the current Beanie Baby, beef jerky, and pseudo-military clothing bazaars they are today. Dealers got tired of pushy, rude, selfish people with nothing better to do than wear the finish off a bunch of high-dollar inventory without actually having any intention of buying.
Brad