Gun show raises estimated $15,000 for area charities

Despite a shortage of ammunition, and the COVID-19 pandemic, the South Hot Springs Lions Club Semi-Annual Gun and Knife Show had over 1,800 people attend, raising around $15,000 for charities, its chairman said Tuesday.

Steve Yach, gun show chairman, said the two-day show went “pretty good,” with about 1,850 customers attending the event at the Hot Springs Convention Center last Saturday and Sunday.

Yach had previously said the show could have been a re

cord-breaker, as several other gun shows have recently experienced, but even though it wasn’t, he stressed it was still successful.

He noted gun shows tend to have larger crowds when there is a Democrat in the White House.

“We were a little down,” Yach said, noting the “situation with the masks” could have been a contributing factor. The convention center required that each attendee older than 10 years old wear a facial covering. However, Yach said the number of attendees was up over January’s show, which had around 1,600 visitors.

Yach said there were “not a lot of problems” with the masks, noting, “quite honestly, we had to remind the vendors more than the visitors” to keep the masks on. He said they “did have one vendor who left because he didn’t want to wear a mask. He just refused to wear a mask.”

Yach said the vendors having to be reminded about the masks more often could be because of long they were in the building since a vendor might be in the showroom for nine hours, while a customer was in there for one hour.

There is a shortage of ammunition and guns right now, and while it did affect the gun show, it largely did not affect the fundraising aspect of the event, he said.

“I would say 9-mm and .380 caliber ammunition was almost impossible to find. Very little of it,” Yach said, and the shortage of these products likely hurt the vendors’ sales.

The money raised for charity does not come from gun sales at the show, but from the vendors renting tables, admission and raffle tickets. Yach said they don’t know yet how much they raised, but it looks like “we can donate around $15,000” which is “about as good as our average.”

Yach said many vendors had to downsize the number of tables they rented, noting, “One guy cut down his eight tables to four.” There was a waiting list for tables, though, so when these tables were canceled, other vendors rented them.

“If we would have had a lot of extra tables, (the shortages) would have affected us, but we sold all” of the tables, he said.

After talking to several vendors, he said some felt the show had been slow and others thought it had been a success. He said one first time vendor told him he “wants to sign up for the same table for the next 10 years.”

The next gun show will be held on Jan. 30-31, at the convention center. After hosting this show, if the pandemic is still going in January, Yach said the club is ready to hold another masked gun show.

“I would say we had some members in the club (who) questioned if we should have done this one,” he said, but after the show, one of the members who wanted to cancel it told him the “turnout was great.”

Yach said under the “same circumstances, we would do it again.”

The South Hot Springs Lions Club has sponsored the show twice a year since 1985, with all the proceeds going toward Lions Club sight conservation and other community projects.

The proceeds will go toward World Services for the Blind, Arkansas Lions Eye Bank and Lab, Mid-South Lions Sight and Hearing, Lions Club International Foundation, Arkansas Sheriff’s Youth Ranches, The Caring Place, Habitat for Humanity, Jackson House, Potter’s Clay, Samaritan Ministries, The Salvation Army, Ouachita Children, Youth, and Family Services, Project HOPE Food Bank, Jones Eye Institute, Garland County Historical Society, Cooperative Christian Ministries and Clinic, Boys and Girls State, Hospice Foundation, Cobra East, Boys & Girls Club, and three nursing scholarships at National Park College.