At Reno event, enthusiasts fearing new restrictions load up on guns and ammo
RENO, NEVADA » Less than a week after a gunman mowed down 58 people halfway across the state, hundreds of firearm admirers filled a convention hall here for a huge gun show on Saturday, perusing tables weighed down with weapons like those used in the worst mass shooting in modern American history.
But even as attendees carted home rifles, scopes and ammunition, most of those interviewed Saturday said they supported a federal ban on bump stocks, a device used by the Las Vegas shooter to transform his semi-automatic rifles into firearms capable of shooting hundreds of bullets a minute.
Die-hard gun fans said they didn’t understand the point of the bump stocks, which they said make it nearly impossible to aim with accuracy.
“There’s no reason for it,” said Tom Joyner, 65, an avid gun owner with a Santa Claus-
gun owner with a Santa Claus-like beard who drove from his home in Gardnerville, Nevada, to stock up on ammunition. “If you’re using it for target practice, you’re going to miss all your targets.”
The device is used to modify semiautomatic guns into firearms that can shoot hundreds of rounds a minute, essentially transforming legal weapons into something resembling a machine gun. It replaces a gun’s shoulder stock, harnessing the recoil movement of the gun to continue firing. Congress is considering banning bump stocks, and the National Rifle Association said Thursday that it supports “additional regulations” on the device.
There were no bump stocks on sale at the show, disappointing some buyers, who went table to table asking for them. One vendor complained that he had sold his bump stocks a few years ago for $100 each. Since last Sunday’s shooting, they’ve been going for $2,000 or more online.
The show was held at the Reno-Sparks Convention Center, across the street from the Atlantis Casino, where Las Vegas shooter Stephen Paddock was a regular slot poker player. It was at the Atlantis, according to news reports, where Paddock first met his girlfriend, Marilou Danley, who investigators hope will be able to shed light on the killer’s motive.
About a fifth of the license plates in the convention center parking lot were from California, and some of the Californians who drove up for the show said they came because they were worried about their state’s increasingly strict gun laws. Several mentioned new California laws soon going into effect requiring out-of-state ammunition purchases to be shipped to a licensed dealer and requiring purchasers to get a background check before they buy ammo.
“Everybody I know is stockpiling ammo,” said Allen, who came from Sacramento, as he carried a plastic bag bulging with bullets and gun parts. He declined to give his last name.
No one interviewed at the show said they remembered seeing Paddock before, but the Vegas shooting was one of the biggest discussion topics.
“We’ve all had these talks, and I don’t know how you would stop that,” said Brendan Musselman, 26, who wore a hoodie featuring the Pokemon character Charmander hoisting a big gun. He and a couple of friends had driven four hours from the tiny town of Round Mountain, Nevada, for the show.
People swapped suggestions for what should have been done in Vegas — ideas that often involved more guns, not fewer guns.
Ryan Fisher, a vendor from Oregon who sells custom-designed firework and flare launchers, said the police should have had sniper teams in place to protect the concert. A police sniper could have ended the tragedy “in a few seconds,” he suggested, by shooting into Paddock’s hotel room. “He would only have gotten a couple of rounds off, and it’d be over.”
The bump stock, Fisher said, was pointless. “From a tactical perspective, (Paddock) wasn’t very accurate — he had a lot of injuries but not a lot of kills,” he said. “It’s the ugliest piece of junk I’ve ever seen. I’d never put something that ugly on my gun.”
The show offered everything from antique rifles and pistols to modern-day, tricked-out assault weapons. “Used in the war,” one sign declared, without specifying which war. Other vendors sold knives, bins of ammunition, crossbows and pieces of wall art that can swivel to reveal hiding places for guns.
Many of the attendees were decked out in camouflage gear or T-shirts with slogans like “Warning: contents are not California compliant” and “I support a woman’s right to choose whatever gun she wants.” Most were men, although there were some women, as well as children and families.
T.J. Brown, who lives in Carson City, Nevada’s capital, walked out of the show pushing a pink stroller, followed by his wife and four young kids. He lamented that politicians were using the families of the Las Vegas shooting victims to push for more gun control.
“They say that because some of these families are sad that they should take away our guns. That’s crazy,” said Brown, 30, who has a big red beard and tattoos snaking up his right arm. “For anybody to politicize it right off a tragedy is horrible.”
The two-day show — planned far in advance of the Vegas shooting — was organized by Crossroads of the West, a company that holds shows around the region, including at the Cow Palace in Daly City.
Organizers seemed skittish about attention, having security guards escort a Bay Area News Group reporter out of the show at one point when he began interviewing people. A spokesman for Crossroads did not respond to a request for comment.
It’s illegal for California residents to buy guns in Nevada without getting them shipped to a licensed dealer back home. But law enforcement officials and gun control advocates worry that Nevada’s looser gun laws fuel a flow of illicit weapons — some that quietly trade hands in the parking lots of gun shows like this — from Nevada to California. Law enforcement agencies traced more than 1,000 guns to Nevada in 2015, according to data from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, making it the second largest external source after Arizona.
“We share a border with Nevada, so unfortunately their gun laws affect us too,” said Amanda Wilcox, legislative chair of the California chapter of the Brady Campaign, a gun control group.
The California Attorney General’s Office has been known to send undercover agents to Nevada gun shows. A spokeswoman for the office declined to comment.
Most vendors at the show posted signs declaring “private sale, Nevada residents only” — meaning that their sales didn’t require a background check. There was a booth for people to go to get background checks, but it wasn’t as well attended as vendors’ booths. Many sellers say they ask to see a buyer’s Nevada concealed carry permit, which requires a background check to get.
While Nevada voters last year passed a ballot initiative requiring background checks for private sales, the state’s NRA-backed attorney general has refused to enforce it, citing disputes with the FBI over how the checks would work and be paid for.
Some of those who attended said they thought turnout was higher than at recent shows, but everyone agreed it was substantially down from a few years ago, when gun lovers worried about a crackdown by the Obama administration lined up for hours to get into the show.
Other than a bumpstock ban, most attendees rejected the idea that the deadly shooting on the other side of their state should lead to any kind of new gun controls.
“If you own a gun, it’s yours, so you should be able to do whatever you want with it,” said Gary Redmon, of Layton, Nevada.
Fellow Nevadan Steven Peters, who lovingly cradled his newly bought ‘40s Remington rifle, agreed. “We’re seeing a constant chipping away of our gun rights,” he said. “The end goal is confiscation.”