A gun show in Wichita, Kansas showed the disparity between Second Amendment supporters to those who seek a disarmed population. On Saturday the 16th of July, five protesters showed-up. The ratio of vendors to protesters was 20 to 1. From kake.com:
Inside Century II Expo Hall today was a gun and knife show with more than 100 vendors selling firearms, knives and accessories.
Outside Century II, the Wichita Coalition Against Gun Violence held a vigil for those who have lost their lives in recent gun-related attacks.
Rev. Michael Poage is co-director of the Coalition. He says there are many reasons he wanted to hold a vigil at Century II today.
“Well one reason are the three flags at half mast back here,” Poage said. “That’s been the scene too often – too many killings. Too many guns, too many killings.”
I’ve attended many gun shows as a vendor, organizational representative, blog promoter or simple attendee. In my opinion, attendees normally outnumber vendors by 20 to hundreds to one. The ratio of attendees to protesters at this show was likely thousands to one.
Kansas is where the “collective rights” argument about the Second Amendment was created, in the Kansas Supreme Court, in 1905, in Salina v. Blakesley.
A hundred years later, in 2005, Kansas changed from banning the concealed carry of arms altogether, to a shall issue concealed carry law. In 2015, just 10 years later, Kansas became a permitless or “Constitutional” carry state, where no permit is required to carry a firearm either openly or concealed.
Much of the organizing and education required for that change happened and was facilitated by gun shows. It is easy to see why those who want a disarmed public are so motivated to destroy gun shows. They have become a political force multiplier.
©2016 by Dean Weingarten: Permission to share is granted when this notice and link are included.
Gun Watch
I have been to a bunch of gun shows over the last 20+ years and have never seen a single protester. I would welcome the chance to harass that bunch and see if I get one turn into the screaming cussing maniac that they all seem to have dying to get out!
Pathetic losers. They’d get laughed at if they “protested” the Illinois and Indiana shows I frequent. Or get their sissy azzes kicked:)
The even more pathetic losers are the local mainstream media that gave the protesters so much undeserved coverage. The local TV should have passed on the “story” once the saw the protest was an embarrassing 5 people.
Friar Phleger may threaten to “snuff you out” if you keep talking like that.
Seriously though, I don’t recall a single one either. I’d probably be standing out side with a sign that said “close the Obama loophole; Fast and Furious kills” or something similar with the protestors, troll a bit then be like “fuck it I’ve got guns to buy” and walk in.
Oh, and I am surprised we haven’t seen one in IL tbh.
Never seen one protester in 20 years of Miami area gun shows. DMD
I live in upstate New York, there are gun shows all the time around here. Never seen a protester. Maybe if they had one in NYC Bloomberg would pay some people to protest? Everything West of the Hudson is bumpkin flyover country for him.
I chortled, nay, guffawed when I saw this.
I live in Arizona. I didn’t even know what an anti gun protestor looked like until I tracked them down myself.
Tucson in particular has a large and growing population of anti-gun lib/progs. And the greater PHX areas is getting lousy with them as well. While AZ, as a whole, may still be a pro-gun state, those large urban areas are turning more and more lib/prog as more ‘coasters move in, and urban youth is indoctrinated into anti-gun culture.
Don’t say it can never happen. Because it can, and will, unless it is actively worked against in a vigorous manner.
I live in Wichita and literally didn’t even see those guys.
Surprising they even had one in Kansas. Gun haters should know that Kansas is not a convenient place for gun haters.
Outside the city limits of crime-ridden liberal strongholds, the entire country is an inconvenient place for gun haters.
You know if you dot like guns do not buy one. Don’t protest someone wanting to legally sell me the only product constitutionally protected.
Southeast Michigan here. Attend gun shows somewhat regularly. Never once have I seen a protester.
Here in Cali, our gun shows have routinely had less and less selection as more and more laws are enacted. Where once we had aisles of relatively interesting firearms, now, the jerky vendors, the civil war memorabilia fakers, the nazi collectioneers, and relatively uninteresting brick-a-brack peddlers are vying for table space with the pot metal fantasy blade sellers, mini crossbow and airsoft vendors, and the REALLY dirty 50th hand military surplus that no one would buy goes to die.
Then there are the highly inflated, arsenal refinished M1 Garands, M14’s, M1 Carbine’s, and the rare beat up Enfield SMLE, with nary a Mosin in sight. I envy yous guys your selection. I have seen protesters locally increase with the waning years, the most was this last gun show, and the next one in August will probably be heavily protested, but those people can sit on it and rotate for all I care.
p.s. plus the heavy police presence outside taking pics of the license plates, which is why I park blocks away and walk into the local venue. They should bring that nonsense back home to Cali where this garbage fire was born.
Where’s the next big show going to be?
You can check Central Coast Gun Shows for their schedule here in Cali. I suppose I am gonna have to go in August and again in December to reallllly stock up on ammo before the passage of that god awful bill requiring registration and background checks just to buy gun food, smh. One more dam year and I can be free from this state of insanity.
Much like terrorists, mass anti-gun protests typically pick soft targets. They protest near places where they have “backup”, i.e. police stations, government facilities, and so on. You never see sizable anti-gun protests regardless, but even their “large ones”, i.e. 100 people or so, tend to always be around soft targets. I’ve never seen a notable protest documented in front of the NRA HQ, and certainly not in front of gun shows, gun shops, gun manufacturers, or anything of that nature.
Now, I doubt any gun owner would give these fools the time of day if they decided to get confrontational, but the antis’ tactics are telling…
And you probably don’t see them protesting outside places where gangs hang out.
I like Kansas. I was there a few weeks ago. Got to drive across the state from Wichita through Dodge City and out to garden City, and spend a few nights there doing security assessments. Really great people and a great state. Glad the village idiots protesting the gun show were shown for what they are. Idiots.
If you don’t like trees, then Kansas is your place. I personally like trees and live in Missouri but I will give Kansas a fair amount of respect when it comes to gun rights.
Really? I live in Kansas and we have plenty of trees around here! Now you guys need to get a new governor so you can get the same rights we have.
I was in Kansas a few weeks ago and I loved it there. Great people and great atmosphere.
Protesting at a gun show is pathetic. They prolly think its like an international grey market arms bazaar in a spy movie. Full of snarling fringe lunatics. But you know how it is; varmint jerkey, gel-print t-shirts, zip ties in every color and force rating imaginable, people blocking the aisles sharing dubious anecdotes of 30 years ago.
Wow, that is so true!
Kitchen spices. Can’t forget the kitchen spices.
.. and jewelry for the ladies.
Are we really sure that there were really five “protesters”? I suspect that at least two to three of the people in the photo were illiterate passersby that were asked to help hold the extra signs…
Another way of looking at it.
We can get 5000 people to attend a gun show but we can rarely get 50 to let their legislators know they oppose any given anti-gun bill.
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