It's Saturday, 11:20 am. I just got back from the Gun Show at the San Francisco Cow Palace.
Oh my.
As someone else standing in the asshole-to-bellybutton-five-person-deep mob at the ammo booth cracked: "Who says Obama's not stimulating the economy?"
I have a regular strategy for the bi-monthly gun show. I show up before the doors open, grab my ammo first, borrow one of the dealer's hand-trucks, haul it to my car, then return the truck, and leisurely walk the show for as long as it interests me.
Today, for whatever reason, I took the wrong exit...got lost (don't ask) and got in line about 5 minutes before the doors opened instead of the usual 10-15.
Now, this might not sound like much. But the spot in line I got today was maybe 10 times further back than usual. AND it was just the line for tickets...not the line for the door!
And that, good buddy, is a record breaker.
I usually stroll right up to the ticket window, then get into about tenth place in line at the door and wait 10-15 minutes till they open. I'm usually among 3 or 4 early birds at the Ammo Booth. Today I arrived less than 10 mintues later than usual and there were hundreds of people already there. I've already described the scene at the Ammo Booth.
Now, I will say this. Being a woman of a certain age, wearing high heels, skirt and blazer, is apparently advantageous for getting served totally out of order amid the chaos. Waving a prepared list at the clerks doesn't hurt either.
Okay, admittedly, just being a female in that crush was like wearing a flashing beacon. There were maybe two of us. And at the risk of sounding catty, the other was damn near indistinguishable from the guys. (Ladies, learn to use it. We get the short end of the stick often enough.)
By the time I got back from stashing my purchase in the car, the mob crowding the Ammo Booth was even deeper and tighter.
(Oh...and did I mention a guy in line tried to pick me up. So, that was nice.)
I got a few other odds and ends, a sling for the AR, and a barrel wrenchy thing (shut up, I am still a girl). And one of those things that fits in the magazine slot of the lower, which you then clamp into a vice, so you've got the receiver held steady without actually crushing or scratching it with the vice itself. Coolest thing ever. Wish I had it when I put together the first one...
And I finally got a 10-round mag for the damned AR. I installed my new rear sight the other day, but I haven't been able to shoot it because I had no "cartridge delivery system" that I could use in public. It was $25. I thought it was high, until a guy I was talking to popped his eyebrows up and told me I should have snapped it up. So I did.
Sometimes you just have to depend on the kindness of strangers.
The Show was a crowded madhouse. Fun and all, but I couldn't get over the mob scene. The San Francisco gun shows have been declining for some time, as you might guess. The "community" doesn't exactly support the activity, and the government keeps threatening to shut them down. If the taxes they wracked up today were any indication of things to come...they'd do well to keep it going. They'd do well to offer incentives to make it bigger and better and get, I don't know, more GUNS there. If it wasn't for ammo, most of us wouldn't even bother going. Calling it a "gun" show has become almost a misnomer the last few years. Calling it a gunner accessory, food, knife, bumpersticker, book, Japanese sword, and clothing show is more like it. Well, and ammo.
It's always fun to hand-truck mine along the line of late-comers...as they goggle at the "lady" who looks like she's going to a luncheon, pushing several cases of ammo to the parking lot.
They make jokes. They're always the same. But I laugh anyway.
This has been a long winded way to get to my original (no A.D.D. here) point: People are seriously nervous, and they are seriously stocking up. I've never seen anything like it. I hope this "president" and his posse understand the implications. Cause, bottom line, they're not good.
The Gunslinger
Joebama American citizens 2024 print
2 months ago
Have you never dealt with people like the annointed one before and trod the santified halls of power?
ReplyDelete"Never let a crisis go to waste" is not some evil Emannual thought, it's standard operating procedure. He was just careless enough after the election to voice it. San Francisco could burn to the gound in a civil war and the Mexican Army have to be called in to help with the rebels and it would just be a chance to consolidate power. As long as you can't get to them personally, they don't care. All that matters is their power. You are just a chess piece.
The announcement by Holder of intentions to reinstate the assault weapons ban nearly four months into the buying frenzy was not ignorance. It was a calculated move.
The beautiful thing about gun shows is the uncommon decency of the people you meet. Whether the seller is at your price point is irrelevant. No sale? That's fine. We're still part of the clan.
ReplyDeleteGlad you had a good time.
you got a picture of the high heels and skirt
ReplyDeleteGS,
ReplyDeleteHope you look half as good as my wife does in heels and skirt and you are gonna knock em dead!
Today must have been gun show Saturday. I live in rural Missouri.
A small town near here had a gun show at the Optimist Center. The town has around 1800 population. The place was PACKED. Waiting lines for everything. You had to walk the isles sideways to get through. Of course, everyone was polite and didn't seem to mind the crowd or the waiting for ammo... if you could get it. ... besides it was a chance to talk and meet friends.
Black rifles were scarce and parts expensive. 9mm ammo is gone. It is no where to be found. At a bible study sat night we had a bible quiz before we ate and the prize was a box of 9mm ammo... no kidding.
I know the midwest rural stereotype ... uneducated billy bobs... not so.. doctors lawyers engineers (my chosen vocation) carpenters, truck drivers, farmers, moms, pastors (interesting side note... after the bible study.. the men and more than a few women gathered around to show off their newer gun purchases.. last night our preacher showed off his new 38 special taurus.. nice little gun)
I say all of this to say this... to the last person I've talked to lately.. all agree, something wicked this way comes. It seems that no one can articulate what it is... none the less its coming.
I read somewhere that right before an snow avalanche survivors recall a change in the ambient environment... a sense of impending doom... I suspect it is actually a change in air pressure caused by a sudden massive displacement of air by the huge tonnage of snow coming down the mountain.
That is what people are experiencing right now.. a sudden massive displacement in their ambient environment...
It is what James Surowiecki calls THE WISDOM OF CROWDS.
My advice is to pray and prepare.
Take care and God Bless,
BHenry
Arctic Wolf. I have fallen in love with your first sentence. It trips off the tongue so beautifully. I've read it several times. Almost Shakespearean.
ReplyDeleteI was shocked when I heard Emanuel say that out loud. It was like detailing bathroom behavior. One knows it exists, but one doesn't discuss it in public.
As for your last point, are you suggesting they want the populace armed to the teeth with assault weapons?
Or that they have stock in companies making AR-15's & AK-47's?
Velociman, it's so true. All the typical gulfs that exit between people tend to matter less among those of us in the "gun culture".
ReplyDeleteThe other day at the range, a young man was anxious to let me shoot his .308 because I mentioned I had never shot one, and was interested in trying it. The rangemaster called him over, told him what I said, and he could hardly get his rifle in my hands fast enough, including as much ammo as I wanted to shoot (I only took a couple of shots).
The typical kid his age would not even notice I existed. And would hardly hang out, sharing tips and giving encouragement and advice to some woman older than his mom.
Between us two we represented different ages, different sexes and different races.
I LOVE GUN PEOPLE: "The Clan" (yes!)
lowandslow....if I were younger, I'd giggle and blush. Well, okay, I sort of did anyway.
ReplyDeleteBill...I'm using your comment as a "guest" post. Hope you don't mind.
ReplyDeleteYou nailed it.
Yes. They do have stock in companies making all sorts of military like hardware.
ReplyDelete"Assault Weapons" are not the issue. Leathality wise, they are no more deadly than a lot of hunting weapons, they just look that way. They aren't really assault weapons, only the government has those. Afghani freedom fighters managed to put quite a dent in the Soviet Union with bolt action Enfields. The revolution would be just as effective if it were started with .38 revolvers and deer rifles. Whether or not you have your AR makes no difference to them.
The proposed ban has had several effects: 1) The government now has a nice list of all the malcontents. (Do you really believe the instant check data is destroyed). 2) It vilifies an American subculture and further fragments the country for easy ruling. Like the Nazis did to the Jews. 3) It causes people to be distracted from other communist items the annointed one and his cabal are trying to ram through.
Yeah...I spend plenty of time trying to explain that the same gun with wood is a "hunting" gun but with black plastic it's an "assault" weapon.
ReplyDeleteAnd that "semi-auto" doesn't mean a machine gun...sigh.
I used the term in the context of Liberal thinking. That's what they call them. I should have used scare quotes:
"...are you suggesting they want the populace armed to the teeth with "assault weapons"?
Probably the biggest reason why there aren't all that many actual guns for sale at the gun show, is that it's California. No cash-and-carry ability. The mandatory waiting period not only removes much of the thrill of an impulse purchase, but it makes it much more difficult to consummate the transaction.
ReplyDeleteIf you have to drive 20 miles to the gun show and then drive who knows how far to pick the gun up later, it creates an incentive to just buy it locally.
Ammo, accessories and anything else that someone can just take home with them will always be much more prominent.
GunGeek...good point. So lucky to live here, am I.
ReplyDeleteIf I didn't have a job I love...(at least for the moment!)