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People look over semiautomatic handguns at the Sig Sauer booth during the National Shooting Sports Foundation’s 33rd annual Shooting, Hunting and Outdoor Trade (SHOT) Show at the Sands Expo & Convention Center on Wednesday, Jan. 19, 2011.
By Jackie Valley (contact) 
Friday, Dec. 28, 2012 | 2 a.m.
Map of Cashman Convention Center
Cashman Convention Center
850 Las Vegas Boulevard, Las Vegas
Organizers of a gun show in town this weekend expect bigger crowds as more first-time buyers, buoyed by safety fears and any looming federal crackdown on gun sales, flock to Cashman Center.
“This is the largest gun show we’ve ever had or anyone has ever had in Las Vegas,” said Bob Templeton, president of Crossroads of the West Gun Shows.
The show typically draws 6,000 to 7,000 customers during its two-day stay in Las Vegas, but based on presale ticket numbers, organizers think attendance could surge as high as 12,000, Templeton said.
The show, marking its 10th year at Cashman Center, comes two weeks after the massacre in Newtown, Conn., where a gunman armed with two semiautomatic pistols and a semiautomatic rifle killed 20 elementary school students, six staff members and his mother before committing suicide. The Dec. 14 tragedy triggered both cries for stricter gun-control laws in the United States and a spike in gun sales.
“These kind of things, unfortunately, tend to energize people in regard to their gun rights and their personal safety,” Templeton said.
The trickle-down effect will be felt this weekend in Las Vegas.
A thousand vendors — several hundred more than in previous years — will attend the show, but two or three already have pulled out, Templeton said. The reason for not attending: Some vendors ran out of inventory after the tragedy-inspired race to gun stores.
“Attendance at gun shows has doubled in some cases,” said Templeton, who also serves as president of an association for arms shows. “Stores have lines of people waiting to buy guns.”
Women constitute a large chunk of the first-time buyers who are purchasing handguns and signing up for classes to earn concealed-carry permits, Templeton said. He attributed the increase to a feeling among some that their Second Amendment rights are in jeopardy.
Attendees of the Crossroads of the West Gun Show in Las Vegas must be residents of Nevada to buy a gun, Templeton said. The show will feature a variety of weapons and ammunition, such as handguns, hunting weapons, collector firearms and the Colt AR-15 semi-automatic rifle, he said.
Referring to semi-automatic rifles, Templeton said, “Those are still legal, although many people feel they may be outlawed under proposed legislation.”
The annual gun show at Cashman Center has not elicited any protests in the past, but given recent events, Templeton said he could not rule out the possibility this year. Show organizers, however, are not making any plans to deal with protesters.
“They would be exercising their First Amendment rights, just as we’re exercising our Second Amendment rights,” he said.
Regular-admission tickets to attend the show are available online and at the door for $14. A dollar-off coupon also is available online and in some local gun stores.
The show runs from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday and from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Sunday. Attendees must be 18 years old to enter unless accompanied by an adult.
Get em while there hot!
For all you Republicans who voted against Obama last month, here is what the guy you voted for said and did:
"Deadly assault weapons have no place in Massachusetts. These guns are not made for recreation or self-defense. They are instruments of destruction with the sole purpose of hunting down and killing people."
--Gov Mitt Romney(After signing a permanent ban on assault rifles, 2004)
Selah........
yeah Markey...I don't think Romney was Gov In Conn back then if history serves me correct...nice try to blame it on Romney for he was a Mass Gov back then...not Conn....typical Lib....always making up stuff...
"Women constitute a large chunk of the first-time buyers who are purchasing handguns and signing up for classes to earn concealed-carry permits, Templeton said. He attributed the increase to a feeling among some that their Second Amendment rights are in jeopardy."
The irony of this is un-beleiveable. To think that for the last months we heard so much about the Conservative war on women and now they supposedly are turning to the conservative view on guns.
Wonder why?????
The last time this massive a gun control law was passed Americans purchased 10 years of AR-15 style weapons and magazines in one year. President Obama along with Senator Feinstein are still the best gun salesman in America. On behalf of all the stock holders in the firearms business and accessory manufactures, "Thank You" very much!
2nd Amendment nuts always forget the part about WELL REGULATED, well, new regulations are on the way.
And your own ranting will be used to bring it about, so please keep talking out loud.
I m a reality based gun owner btw..
;)
Comment removed by moderator. Personal Attack
Comment removed by moderator. - -
"President Obama along with Senator Feinstein are still the best gun salesman in America."
mar100 -- neither you nor any poster so far has bothered to mention how this Obama regime deliberately put thousands of assault weapons into the hands of the outlaw Mexican cartels. You know, exactly the kind of firearms forbidden to the rest of us. Evidently Americans approved of that "Fast and Furious" campaign by letting him and Holder keep their jobs. Utter hypocrisy.
"2nd Amendment nuts always forget the part about WELL REGULATED, well, new regulations are on the way."
Markey -- no such thing. Militias were explained in the U.S. Supremes' first great Second Amendment decision, 2008's Heller v. District of Columbia -- "when the able-bodied men of a nation are trained in arms and organized, they are better able to resist tyranny" and "history showed that the way tyrants had eliminated a militia consisting of all the able-bodied men was not by banning the militia but simply by taking away the people's arms, enabling a select militia or standing army to suppress political opponents" (slip opinion pages 24-25).
"...the enshrinement of constitutional rights necessarily takes certain policy choices off the table." District of Columbia v. Heller, 554 U.S. (slip opinion at 64) (2008)
Comment removed by moderator. Inappropriate
Oh, good. More guns, more bullets, more armed people. That has certainly been the answer so far. Just ask Newtown, CT. People who are obsessed with the right to have guns will never choose to understand their fellow Americans who want to live without the threat of being killed by them.
Beware of fake media pretending to be buyers and trying to do illegal sales etc. NYC Bloomberg may send agents as well to come up with video.
"Oh, good. More guns, more bullets, more armed people. That has certainly been the answer so far."
notch -- and that has certainly NOT been the problem so far. Get a grip!
"Democracy is two wolves and a lamb voting on what to have for lunch. Liberty is a well-armed lamb contesting the vote." -- attributed to Benjamin Franklin
Every Neighborhood, City & State needs to start forming up local Militias now!
They are coming for our guns in total disregard for our Bill of Rights, this IS Tyranny and we need to abide by our Constitution, our founding fathers gave us the tools to protect it! -- "when the able-bodied men of a nation are trained in arms and organized, they are better able to resist tyranny"
<<<Wait a minute. What "looming federal crackdown"? The feds aren't gong to ban guns anytime soon. Calm down, people.>>>
Perhaps you haven't read Feinstein's new gun ban law? They are DEFINITELY coming for our guns! >>>> http://www.feinstein.senate.gov/public/i...
Just not Vegas, come to Texas and Louisiana as well. Here in Texas now and can't beat the inventory or the prices" Nevada is too close to California and too many of those tree hugging fruit loops drive up prices and keep inventory down.
Strict gun control headquarters "Chicago" just celebrated their 500th murder of the year!
"enabling a select militia or standing army to suppress political opponents"
-------------------------------
Crazed gun wingnut btranslation:
"Black Helicopters!"
The feds can't control the guns out there now, but they can control the ammo. Time to stock up !!!
time to sell high.
"Crazed gun wingnut btranslation [sic]"
Hey, Markey, you quoted from a word-for-word bit pasted right out of Heller. The way you used it was clownish
"...a legislative act contrary to the Constitution is not law." -- Marbury v. Madison, 1 Cranch 137, 177 (1803)
Gun nuts on parade.
It takes a sick person to think "hey that gun massacred a dozen six year olds last week...I've gotta get me one of those!"
KillerB, Ben Franklin never said that. The word "lunch" wasn't even used until the mid 1800s.
turn in your guns and get a free box of twinkies
"KillerB, Ben Franklin never said that."
heartprivacy -- perhaps. I've seen the quote around, and boftx used it recently. Google searched it, could not nail down a confirmed source. That's why you see "attributed to."
"This country, with its institutions, belongs to the people who inhabit it. Whenever they shall grow weary of the existing government, they can exercise their constitutional right of amending it, or their revolutionary right to dismember or overthrow it." -- Abraham Lincoln, first inaugural address, 1861
It looks like the Vegas gun show will be fairly unique. There will be an area devoted to both the purchaser and their families/roommates will be registered and background checked plus the new neighborhood reporting station should illuminate the next mass murderer.
Should be fun.
It appears that Cashman Center is going to be packed with a bunch of anatomically challenged (vertical and elsewhere), xenophobic males this weekend.
"Organizers of a gun show in town this weekend expect bigger crowds as more first-time buyers, buoyed by safety fears and any looming federal crackdown on gun sales,"
Never mind all the people at the gun show, I'm concerned the firing ranges won't be the safest place these coming months with the gaggle of FNGs practicing!
I really hope first-timers seek proper training.