CCW & Gun Show Rules Question?

[zeroflux]

Not sure which forum to post this question in so please move if necessary. It would be nice if we had a forum dealing specifically with every day concealed carry questions.

The Chantilly Gun Show is this weekend and I was just reading on their site that loaded firearms and loaded magazines are not allowed in the show. I also know that they ask if you have a firearm with you when you enter the show after buying your ticket. I assume that they verify that the firearm is empty and that they put on the plastic ties? Is there a safe area where they do this? Does anyone know where they unload/reload firearms at the show, or are you expected from the outset to only show up with an empty firearm? If so, do they at least remove the plastic tie for you prior to exiting?

What do those of you that regularly carry do when you attend the show? Simply go unarmed? Leave the firearm and holster in the vehicle?

[Nephrology]

Concealed means concealed. AFAIK it is not against the law to carry to a gun show. YMMV.

[Tamara]

Not sure which forum to post this question in so please move if necessary. It would be nice if we had a forum dealing specifically with every day concealed carry questions.

The Chantilly Gun Show is this weekend and I was just reading on their site that loaded firearms and loaded magazines are not allowed in the show. I also know that they ask if you have a firearm with you when you enter the show after buying your ticket. I assume that they verify that the firearm is empty and that they put on the plastic ties? Is there a safe area where they do this? Does anyone know where they unload/reload firearms at the show, or are you expected from the outset to only show up with an empty firearm? If so, do they at least remove the plastic tie for you prior to exiting?

What do those of you that regularly carry do when you attend the show? Simply go unarmed? Leave the firearm and holster in the vehicle?

For the Indy 1500, my IWB-carried belt heater gets cleared in a safe area away from the door (they have a clearing barrel now, but it's right by the door in the middle of a scrum of Cletii, and I don't want Cletus or his cousin Jasper jostling my elbow and asking "Whatchoo got there? How muchyoo want fer it?" while I'm busy trying to milk a rattlesnake.)

I carry my own small pair of diagonal cutters so I can gas it up again when I leave.

While I know it wouldn't be anybody here, there's always the one guy who takes his loaded CCW piece and checks the fit of a holster at the show and ruins the fun for everyone else.

[zeroflux]

For the Indy 1500, my IWB-carried belt heater gets cleared in a safe area away from the door (they have a clearing barrel now, but it's right by the door in the middle of a scrum of Cletii, and I don't want Cletus or his cousin Jasper jostling my elbow and asking "Whatchoo got there? How muchyoo want fer it?" while I'm busy trying to milk a rattlesnake.)

I carry my own small pair of diagonal cutters so I can gas it up again when I leave.

While I know it wouldn't be anybody here, there's always the one guy who takes his loaded CCW piece and checks the fit of a holster at the show and ruins the fun for everyone else.

ROFLOL! Not sure if it fully answers my question specifically in regards to the Chantilly Gun Show, but definitely one of the funniest posts I've read in a long time. Glad I didn't spit my coffee all over the keyboard :D


I carry my own small pair of diagonal cutters so I can gas it up again when I leave.

So where do you do this? In the same safe area? In your vehicle? (is that even recommended as a practice, because I can't think of anywhere in my vehicle that would constitute a "safe direction"?)

[DGI]

The first time I went to the Chantilly gun show, I went with friends that had already been to the show so we all unloaded our weapons outside of the vehicle while pointing them at the ground and when asked at the door we showed them empty weapons. We also had cutters in the car so we could recharge the pistols when it was safe to do so (again before we proceeded to our next destination).

I have accidentally walked up to the door of a gun show (Philly) where I forgot to unload my weapon. When asked if I had a weapon, I told the police officer that I did and I had forgotten to unload it. I offered to let him unload it. He showed me a safe area where I could unload it and then proceeded to zip tie me up.

Having your own cutters certainly allows you the opportunity to booger up your pistols finish, rather than some stranger :cool:

[TGS]

You're probably just better off not going to the show, anyway.

I've never been anything but really disappointed with gun shows, including Chantilly.

[Tamara]

So where do you do this? In the same safe area? In your vehicle? (is that even recommended as a practice, because I can't think of anywhere in my vehicle that would constitute a "safe direction"?)

I prefer someplace around the corner from the entrance so there aren't people everywhere, with a brick or concrete wall for a backstop, and preferably with nice lawn under my feet to catch the ricochet should the gun make any unexpected loud noises on loading. :o

[Tamara]

I've never been anything but really disappointed with gun shows, including Chantilly.

Depends on what you're looking for, I guess. I sure wouldn't have scored the $20 Dreyse or the $350 S&W .44 Hand Ejector 3rd Model at Bass Pro Shops. :p

[cclaxton]

I am a vendor at the Chantilly Gun Show. I just leave it locked up in my vehicle inside a small GunSafe(TM) tethered inside my trunk. That way I don't have to unload it. If I need to take it into the show to buy a holster for it or have someone look at it, I unload it at home, put it into a soft-case then use my backup gun. The backup goes into the GunSafe when I get ready to enter the show.

CC

[Josh Runkle]

Leave your gun in your car and carry a knife.

[ST911]

I'm surprised that so many of you comply the sign(s).

Does such signage carry force of law there?

[JV_]

You're probably just better off not going to the show, anyway.I agree.


I've never been anything but really disappointed with gun shows, including Chantilly.I went one time a few years ago, saw a sea of cars, and turned right around.

I'd rather pay more and do it from my home office.

[LittleLebowski]

I agree.

I went one time a few years ago, saw a sea of cars, and turned right around.

I'd rather pay more and do it from my home office.

Yup.

[Mr_White]

I'm surprised that so many of you comply the sign(s).

Does such signage carry force of law there?

Completely agree.

Setting aside the law or moral issues of compliance with anyone's wishes...the basic physical reality is: if a place doesn't have pat-downs or metal detectors, then they don't actually care to enforce their policy.

[Tamara]

I'm surprised that so many of you comply the sign(s).

Does such signage carry force of law there?

No. I'll also mention that my choice of words was a considered one. :-)

[David Armstrong]

I'm surprised that so many of you comply the sign(s).

Does such signage carry force of law there?
Shouldn't matter. The people putting on the show have said there is an expected code of conduct to be followed. If you don't want to follow the code of conduct, don't go. My $.02.

[JMS]

I'm surprised that so many of you comply the sign(s).

My driver from OIF1 goes to the Dulles show whenever it's in town, and I meet him there just to hang out (no way in hell I'm trying to hit the ranges when the goon-show's in town). He's a buyer, not a shooter, so I enjoy the time spent making fun of him and his purchases, and making fun of certain attendees of these Mos Eisley cantina scene recreations.

I'll cross my fingers when I answer the hand-stamper's question with a jaunty "No!" so it okay...

[Tamara]

I enjoy the time spent making fun of him and his purchases, and making fun of certain attendees of these Mos Eisley cantina scene recreations.

Haters gonna hate. :p

You know, it helps that my local gun show is the 1500, but I like our local show. I'll usually run into Ken Campbell or Frank James there; the guys from Raven Concealment and Ohio Ordnance have tables (used to be able to get RCS holsters while-u-wait, which was awesome.)

Steve Fisher used to be a regular there, and author Michael Z. Williamson has tables. It's a chance to see my people. (And maybe turn some depreciating green paper into an appreciating old S&W or Savage if I'm lucky.)

Sure there's a morass of Bubbas and Cletii, but there's also people I want to see. Getting to point and laugh at the Bubbas and Cletii is just the icing on the cake.

[Hatchetman]

Shouldn't matter. The people putting on the show have said there is an expected code of conduct to be followed. If you don't want to follow the code of conduct, don't go. My $.02.

The folks who put on this show have the following disclaimer on their web site:

DUE TO PUBLIC SAFETY ISSUES AND INSURANCE REQUIREMENTS, THERE WILL BE NO LOADED GUNS, OR MAGAZINES, ALLOWED ON THE SHOW FLOOR. THIS APPLIES TO VENDORS AS WELL AS THE GENERAL PUBLIC. SORRY, BUT WITHOUT MEETING THE INSURANCE REQUIREMENTS THE SHOW CANNOT GO ON, AND AS MUCH AS WE MIGHT AGREE ( or disagree ) WITH YOUR OBJECTIONS, WE MUCH PREFER TO CONTINUE THE SHOW IN SPITE OF THIS SMALL INCONVENIENCE. THIS MATTER IS NOT OUR POLICY OR DECISION, BUT WE CANNOT AND WILL NOT CHANGE IT OR MAKE EXCEPTIONS.

My take away is that the insurance weasels seek to shield themselves from liability by creating an unenforced magic unloaded gun zone that allows 'em to cite said magic zone's verbiage should a gun go boom un-permissibly. As I view the right to self defense as the most fundamental one going I confess I don't find an insurance company's unenforced and unenforceable liability absolution boiler plate to be all that compelling.

With that said, I don't hit the Chantilly show much anymore as it seems to me the vendors have figured out that, with all the federal dollars floating around Northern Virginia, they can jack up their prices and the unwashed masses will still show up and buy all sorts of silly stuff. Usually carry a Shotgun News with me when I go to a show, and usually can find a better price therein for anything offered at Chantilly.

[JMS]

Haters gonna hate. :p

I say it bearing in mind that I'll also snap up any particularly good deals on ammo if I stumble across them. If I can beat or at least match (w/tax) what I can order over the internet and walk out with it that very same day, I'm on it like locusts on a wheat field.

So I'm all Figrin D'an up in that biz-nitch...

[Dan_S]

I'm surprised that so many of you comply the sign(s).

Does such signage carry force of law there?

I'm surprised as much as you are.

As far as I know, the signage does not carry the force of law here, and if you're found out you can be asked to leave.

[JV_]

I don't understand why there's so much surprise about folks who comply.

Sporting events are another place that often forbid guns. If I'm asked a question before entering, I'm not going to lie about it. If answering truthfully means I can't go in, then I'll go elsewhere.

[LittleLebowski]

If Tam's at a gun show I'm visiting, I'm packing and wearing armor :D

[Tamara]

Dude, you can plainly see that the pistol on my belt is safely zip-tied. :cool:

[LittleLebowski]

Dude, you can plainly see that the pistol on my belt is safely zip-tied. :cool:

Larry McMurty wrote that a woman can cut your throat with her tongue. I believe that applies to you :D