I did the unforgivable yesterday (at least from the Brady Bunch perspective.) I purchased a firearm from a private citizen without a background check. At a gun show. And I wasn't immediately compelled to go out and mow down a bus load of kids despite their literature that says otherwise. I valiantly resisted that temptation.
Between my screeds to my state representatives regarding the bills in the statehouse, I made a trip with a neighbor to the gun show in Cedar Rapids. We saw quite a few guys bringing in guns to sell and we saw this trend at Marshalltown the previous Saturday.
One older gentleman brought a rifle in and showed it to a Cedar Rapids police officer to be tagged (that's the policy). A rifle that I would purchase if the price was right. A rifle that would scare Rep. McCarthy from New York even without its barrel shroud. My neighbor and I were paying our entrance fee when I noticed the man and the gun.
By circumstance or random chance, we kept crossing paths a few times, or maybe I was subconsciously "lurking", I don't know. I would be looking at a dealers' wares and he would be offering to sell to the dealer. Each time the gentleman walked away with his rifle.
After almost an hour later, I was waiting for my neighbor in the south addition of the Hawkeye Downs building and the man walked by with his rifle still on his shoulder. So I asked him if he was interested in selling it. His reply was what that no one wanted to give him what he had in it. So I asked him if I could examine it closer and how much his price was. It was less than new and auction price.
Apparently, each dealer wanted to make a couple hundred dollars markup from what I got from him. He told me the story behind his getting the gun, how he traded his shotgun for it and felt ripped off. He just wanted to recoup what he thought he had in it and not to make a profit. His asking price reflected that, because he certainly could have been asking more.
We made the deal and I wished him well.
Later, back in the show, I saw him purchasing a Taurus PT-22 with some of his newly traded for cash. I, on the other hand, only had $5 left in my pocket.
More importantly in my eyes, I had a newly acquired rifle in a caliber that Brady wants to ban (isn't that all of them, BTW) in a transaction between two free Americans using a method that politicians cannot trust.
It was a good day.
3 comments:
congratulations.
I usually strike out on private deals. Either the seller wants too much or someone else grabs it before me.
This one worked out for both of us. Not counting that I don't have lunch money until the end of the week. But I could stand to lose a few pounds.
free market voluntary transaction at the very best.
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