Gun Shows Are Hot in Florida

Mike Vogel | 2/1/2009

The Consumers

For gun buyers, the draw is a vast selection, price and negotiable prices, says show promoter Bill Page. Large dealers can sell 500 to 600 guns a show, he says. [Photo: Kelly LaDuke]

West Palm Beach — Gun show operator Bill Page turns to the crowd at his gun show at the South Florida Fairgrounds in West Palm Beach and asks a question that he answers himself: “Who do you see here? Middle America.”

The aisles indeed are filled with seniors, parents pushing kids in strollers and Average Joes. As if on cue, an elderly fellow in a motorized wheelchair rolls by, a rifle propped on the footboard. And, reflecting the biggest change in Page’s decades in the business, there are plenty of women who’ve come to buy and sell. Women comprise 16% of Florida’s concealed weapons licensees. Says the shirt on one lady, “If you can read this, you’re in range.”

Page says his Melbourne-based Sport Show Specialists saw attendance rise 12% last year, following gains of 8% and 10% in the two prior years. For buyers, the draw is a vast selection, price and negotiable prices, Page says. Large dealers can sell 500 to 600 guns a show, he says.

After more than 40 years in the business, Page ought to know. The 66-year-old has an outdoorsman’s piercing eyes. He’s hunted in British Columbia and Zimbabwe. He owns 15 submachine guns, machine guns and sniper rifles and has a ready answer as to why. “Who buys a Corvette that has 650 horse when the speed limit’s 70? Everybody has something they enjoy doing.” He reckons he buys 400 billboards a year to promote his 26 shows.

Like at all gun shows, a big draw is the concealed weapons permit class. “CONCEALED WEAPONS PERMIT CO RSE AT SHOW,” reads a sign with a missing letter on a worn truck outside. Attendance boomed after law enforcement disintegrated in New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina. On a Saturday morning, 81 people — one in 10 of them women — go through a class put on by Hollywood-based IPS. Walter Philbrick, a judo champion and retired police officer, says his company has taught 150,000 people in the past 15 years.

Bill Page stages 26 gun shows a year. “Who do you see here? Middle America.” [Photo: Florida Today Archive]

On the show floor, the crowd is mostly white. Two big boar heads near the entrance testify to this show being more hunter-oriented than shows to the south. Filling out the 500 tables are one with “I Love Lucy” memorabilia and one provided, gratis, to the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms, where plastic gun locks and brochures on responsible handling of firearms are given away. Another nuance of difference in this show: More people come to the show with personal guns to trade or sell, like the man with a rifle slung over his shoulder tagged with “Russian SKS — $345.”

For many, the show is just entertainment. Two men stop at a table to admire a custom-made rifle with a gleaming stock and intricate inlaid design. Says the seller behind the table, “It’s a work of art — like a Picasso.”