Gun Show Report, from deep behind enemy lines...

[wardog]

Visited the Del Mar, California gun show this weekend while on vacaton there. Sunny So Cal, the old stompin grounds....

What a sad state of affairs. Cheap jewelry, toys, beef jerky, nick-nacks, old photographs, acres of cheap knives & swords, even some guns. Funky looking AR's converted to bolt action, CA legal AR lowers capped off to not accept a magazine, Robinson Arms rifles with a little nub where the pistol grip should be, oh the horrors.

A nice selection of .50 BMG's though as people were buying them before they will be banned in the next couple of weeks. Someone selling soft body armour with a sign saying to get them before they become banned. One booth offering to help with obtaining the license required to buy a handgun in CA.

Waiting periods for everything,
High prices,
1 gun a month,
Nothing with more than a 10 round capacity, can't even sell/trade preban ones,
Too many guns to list that are not "approved" for sale,
"Handgun" license required to buy a handgun (?)
Banned .50's
(am I missing anything?)

My fellow Californians, I salute you for the oppression you've endured and urge you, GET OUT! GET OUT WHILE YOU STILL CAN!

 

[Greg L]

1 gun a month

Could someone please explain that to Mrs L? I would really be in your debt if she would realize that it is a requirement and not a limitation .

Seriously, I am SO glad that I went over the wall back in 1984. The few times that I do have to go back for various reasons I seem to break out in hives .

Greg

 

[DigMe]

Could someone please explain that to Mrs L? I would really be in your debt if she would realize that it is a requirement and not a limitation .

You ain't just whistlin' dixie!!

brad cook

 

[Guy B. Meredith]

There is no license required to buy handguns in CA. Someone is ripping off the visiting non gunnys.

 

[Valkman]

I think the "license" is the test you have to take to prove knowledge of safe gun handling - it is only for that and not the fee which goes to the state.

I got mine in '94 and it was good forever - until Gray Davis needed more money. Then old cards were deemed no good and we had to take the test again - but it was for the children.

 

[Justin]

...but it was for the children.

Schemes for generating revenue usually are.

 

[cerberus]

With California why do we even care

About places like Iraq? California what a joke I am just so glad I got out of there many years ago.

 

[Kinsman]

I used to go to that gun show every year. I think they had it spring and fall?
Saw a beautiful M1a there, walnut stock. You still have state sanction to possess those, no?

Hey, buy a .50BMG too....a boltie with a 5rnd mag would be a great gun to shoot. Plus they are cool-lookin' enough to scare most any GFW.

 

[Rickstir]

I just told one of my key suppliers that I would no longer participate in his trade show. Denial of my right to self defense precludes me from traveling to California. I get to visit trade shows anywhere. There are plenty of them not to be bothered with the ultra left.

 

[ckyllo]

right now I buy a gun about every 3-4 months. might be hard on the pocket book to buy one every month. but I guess I could since it is for the children.
Kali makes minnesota not seem too bad on gun laws, but hey we might get shall issue back by next summer.

 

[GARY SMITH]

I was at Delmar Saturday. Your right it is too bad about the toy and junk vendors. I found 3 guys who had 1911 parts. One of them laughed at me when I asked them if they had any used parts and said we only sell good new parts. Well, I did not buy from him!!
I thought the toy tanks for Christmas outside by Winchester ammo was stupid. I noticed he was not selling many of them. The only thing I bought was a screwdriver set for guns. Good set for 10 bucks!!
And how bout them vendors wanting to squirt silicone in your ear to make ya some custom earplugs!!!! Must of been 3 or so of them there.

 

[TRLaye]

Guy,
There is no license required to buy handguns in CA. Someone is ripping off the visiting non gunnys.
__________________

If you can't buy a handgun in the State of Calif without having in your possession a Handgun Safety Certificate (HSC) then that is in fact, if not intended, a "License Requirement to buy a Handgun".

I challenge you to go to a gun store or gun show and, legally, purchase a modern handgun without an HSC card or one of the other permits, euphemistically called "exemptions".

This is what I tell my Basic Pistol and HSC students and I'm sticking to it.

Tom

 

[stealthmode]

With California why do we even care


I care. you should also. what did you ever do when you lived in california to try to protect your 2nd amendment right? you moved as most people on the forum say to do. are you going to keep moving state to state when new laws pass in your new state?

if more people were proactive by writing letters making phone calls sending emails and talking to people to change their views. if more people did those things we might not have all this crap going on here.

with more and more rinos getting into office the disease will spread to other states so look at arnie and mccain, so called republicans.

 

[Don Gwinn]

Took a lot of snipping and editing to prune all the context out of that quote and make it mean the opposite of what it meant in his post. Why all the effort?

 

[Old Dog]

The gunshow at Del Mar used to be the "Crossroads of the West" show, and it was typically one of the best gunshows you'd find anywhere. I attended religiously until I left San Diego in the early '90s ...

Still, I get down to San Diego quite often, and I don't think things are quite as desperate in California as Wardog would have one believe ... certainly, Californians -- though stuck with some ridiculously restrictive and ultimately pointless gun laws, as well as pitiful governmental leadership on both city and state levels -- are nowhere near as oppressed as those in NYC, D.C., Maryland, New Jersey, Illinois, etc...

'Course, I'd never leave the Free State of Washington to go back to CA ...

 

[natedog]

There IS a license to buy a gun in CA...they don't call it that though. You have to take a written test, and demonstrate that you know how to handle a handgun properly. Then, they give you a little slip of paper giving you permission to buy a handgun.

Only 2 Years, 6 Months, 2 Weeks, 5 Days to freedom....

 

[wardog]

Still, I get down to San Diego quite often, and I don't think things are quite as desperate in California as Wardog would have one believe ...

Ok, so maybe I was a little over dramatic , but did I tell any untruths?

I guess I just remember the salad days. Anyone remember the Pomona show? "Great American" or something like that? It was heaven. When I used to go they had 5,000 tables. Count em. 8 feet long each of em. That's over 7.5 miles of tables. They used to proudly claim that on all their flyers. If you saw a good deal, better jump on it. Even if you could remember where it was it'd be gone by the time you checked the rest of the show. That is if you even made it through the whole thing.

Sure, there were plenty of jerky and toy vendors, but hey there were so many guns no one cared.

Oh, I forgot to mention in my first post, the most egregious vendor at the Del Mar show. (Gary Smith, remember this guy?) There was guy who would make you a custom made bath candle in multiple scents while you waited. You could choose potpourri for the first layer, baby powder for the second layer, cinnamon for the third layer, etc.... I wanted to pound my fists on his table and scream "FOR THE LOVE OF GOD MAN THIS IS A GUN SHOW!!!"

 

[The_Antibubba]

"GET OUT! GET OUT WHILE YOU STILL CAN!!"

I may have to, and guns are only part of it-the cost of living is killing me. It's amazing to think that Las Vegas, (where my folks live), which is essentially a desert utterly dependent on transport for every thing in it, is cheaper to live in than Sacramento, which sits in the middle of the most productive farming region in the world.

Taxes. Taxes and regulations and busybodies. And no Makarov. It really makes me want to pack up and go.

But if I go, the PRK will come creeping after-because the fascists in our Capitol aren't content to stop at our borders-fascists never are-they want to make their twisted socialism the law of America. No smoking on beaches. Labyrinthine housing and construction codes. Licensed illegals, to pay the highest DMV rates in the country.

And they want to take away my guns. And yours, too.

I can pretty much enjoy darn near any gun in Nevada, but I'd always be looking over my shoulder, to the West, to see what crap was sneaking in. Better to fight it at the source, right?

And I still want to go to Law School, so I can defend the BOR and the 2nd. And guess what's cheaper in Cali than anywhere else in the country? A law education; it's from a half to a quarter what it is elsewhere (which would go a long way in explaining all the legislating & litigating...) But if I'm too poor to go...





Decisions, decisions.

 

[carp killer]

if more people were proactive by writing letters making phone calls sending emails and talking to people to change their views. if more people did those things we might not have all this crap going on here.

Try explaining to the man on the street why you need an AK. And see what happens.

 

[BigBlueEyedDevil]

Welcome to our own enjoyable hell...

 

[Machinist]

I spent my whole life on the west coast...ah sweet freedom in TN.