Gun Show's In Town

     There's no telling what kind of a zoo it will be; the President's been talking about guns again, after all, though at least he only barely touched the topic in his State Of The Union speech.  Liable to be more than a few people there bound and determined to buy what they can before The Prez sends in the baddies in blue helmets--

     Which is, in my opinion, a fantasy out of a Hollywood movie -- maybe a cross between Red Dawn and The Manchurian Candidate.  Oh, the current resident of 1600 Penna. does not like the notion that The People have got guns; it rankles him and he is quite sure the we are the problem, but even his very best hired-gun legal minds (and the Attorney General) can't quite get around that pesky Second Amendment and an even peskier Congress.

     Nevertheless, determined to Do Something, they did what they could do without having their hands slapped, and that's one of the reasons I want to go to the show.  ATF has always been able to define "in the business of buying and selling guns" very flexibly* and the Executive Branch just told 'em to go do that thing, only more so.  While nearly all the sellers of more than a couple guns at the Indy 1500 Gun and Knife show are FFL dealers, there are a couple of regulars who are not.  One of them is a serious collector, a man who knows a lot about obscure firearms, often has some very nice and uncommon examples and is always buying, selling and swapping with an eye to improving his collection.  The other fellow has a wider array of guns in a wide array of conditions; my opinion of his collector-or-dealer status is of no legal worth and I won't offer it.  I will, however, be very interested to see if either of them is not present, or if any ATF-looking types are hanging around their tables,† keeping track.

     Also, Gun Show!  Gotta go!  
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* There's a good reason for this, rather than a simple "sell more than n guns" rule: the law mustn't "chill" private sales (or it will face a court challenge) and even ATF has no interest in going after the nice old man who collects pristine Colts; on the other hand, they will point out that the chap selling random gats to bad guys, why, even one sale by him is too darned many.  The problem comes when J. Random Gun-Seller doesn't fit either of those extremes. 
 
† ATF-looking d00ds and even mopier sorts are always generally hanging around Indy 1500 shows.  With my round eyeglasses and Bettie Page bangs, I don't look like a "typical" gun-show attendee and sometimes they'll chat me up.  This can be great fun -- for me. "And how long have you been with the Agency?" is usually good for a sharp look and an abrupt departure.