Gun shows are common events in U.S. and are organized by promoters who acquire large public venues through renting. Public facilities used will include arenas, civic centers, armories and fairgrounds. The show promoters then put up booths and display tables which they allocate to dealers of guns and other related goods at a fee. Display tables will be charged from $20 to $145 and the booths will range from $200 to $500. They then charge buyers/ public a fee for admission which ranges from $5 to$50.
In most cases, they are weekend or holiday events and they are crowd pullers with attendances ranging from 2,500 to 15,000 people in a single show. Apart from guns, other goods that are sold include ammunition, militaria, knives, books and other related items. In a single show, the number of tables can range between 50 to over 2,000 and in large events over 1,000 guns can be sold. In a single year, the estimated number of gun shows ranges from 2,000 t0 5,200 as per ATF records.
The venders are required to have FFL (Federal Firearms License) so as to be able to sell firearms at gun shows in line with GCA (Gun Control Act of 1968) provisions and those of other federal regulations. However, corrupt FFL dealers have made gun shows a hub for trafficking guns with investigations by ATF (Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms) established that gun shows have the second highest number of mosin nagant reviewsMosin Nagant best scopes.
In such events, persons prohibited from owning guns like convicted criminals and juveniles buy guns and these results in trafficking to such individuals. Per ATF, guns are diverted at and through these shows by unregulated private sellers, straw purchasers and licensed dealers and most of the illegally diverted firearms through these events were later recovered in crimes like homicide and robbery. Between 2004 and 2006, ATF carried out surveillance and undercover investigations in about 195 gun shows while targeting specific suspected individuals and 77% (121 individuals) of them were arrested and 5,345 guns were seized. Even legally purchased guns at gun shows have been recovered in criminal related activities.
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GUN SHOWS
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