Newly bought hunting rifles were slung over shoulders, and shotguns were pointed to the ceiling as people milled around tables covered in weaponry, from tasers to an AR-15 rifle.
In a warehouse at the Bloomington Gun Show on Saturday, potential buyers chatted amicably with sellers, brought along dogs and children, cracked jokes about the tasers and bartered over prices. The atmosphere would have been boring, if it hadn’t been for what was on the table.
A mile from the Monroe County Fairgrounds, at Van Buren Water, Inc., on State Road 45, an American flag was flying at half staff, honoring the 17 people killed in the Parkland, Florida, shooting.
“These guns will sit here for 10,000 years and won’t hurt anyone,” said John Abbott, a vendor at the show.
Gun sellers said they were sad to hear about the shooting, but most were reluctant to talk. Of the seven gun vendors with whom the IDS spoke, only four were willing to comment and only one was willing to give his full name.
Abbott, 65, is retired and a veteran of the Vietnam War. He was medically discharged after a piece of shrapnel the size of a half dollar coin tore into his shoulder from a mortar round. He still wears the shrapnel on a necklace.
Abbott used to like to hunt, but his bad shoulder makes it difficult. He still likes to shoot for target practice, and the only way he says he can get past the pain is to use his AR-15. He said that the gun has a lot less recoil than bolt-action rifles, so he has to use semi-automatic rifles.
Abbott said he thinks more gun control would not prevent mass shootings. Instead, he said the current laws need to be better enforced, referring to the fact that the FBI failed to follow up on a tip which reported concerns about suspected shooter Nikolas Cruz's gun ownership and desire to kill people more than five weeks before the Parkland shooting.
“People still slip through the cracks,” Abbott said.
At the show, Abbott’s table had miscellaneous gun parts and a friend’s shotgun he was trying to sell.
Other items for sale at the show included bullet earrings, an old M190 rocket launcher, candy bars, a bright pink pistol, Confederate and American flags and an aluminum morning star.
Only one AR-15 rifle and one Draco AK-47 were for sale, both semi-automatic rifles.
The show, run by Dan Hedger, the owner of Central Indiana Gun Shows, is the smallest of the 50 he puts on every year around the state. He said most of his shows are connected to the community. At one show, he organized a fundraiser to help a local football team, and at others Girl Scouts set up to sell cookies.
“Bloomington's not really sure whether they want the gun show there," Hedger said.
David Carmichael, father of six, brought his 11-year-old son Ben to the show. Ben collects knives and was looking to add to his collection.
David Carmichael grew up around guns. He remembers when his grandfather, who worked in law enforcement, would come home every night and hang his gun belt with the gun still loaded in the family room.
“We knew that gun was loaded and not to touch it,” Carmichael said.
When it comes to his own kids, Carmichael said it was important to expose them to the value of life to help them understand the power of a gun. He said even something like seeing a dog be hit by a car can help kids see that the dog's life has value.
“I'm going to teach my kids about guns, and when they're responsible and old enough, then I don't have a problem with them owning guns,” Carmichael said.
Another vendor at the gun show, Aaron, was only willing to give his first name because he feared repercussions in the workplace. When he’s not selling ammunition at gun shows or collecting military guns made between 1870 and the 1980s, Aaron works as a geologist.
He said mass shootings continue to happen because of the general devaluation of human life.
“When a person is already willing to violate the most sacred right, the right to life, they will be willing to break other, less sacred laws such as those regulating firearms,” Aaron said.
Referring to the Parkland football coach who died using his body as a human shield to protect students, Aaron said educating and training people to use firearms can help in the event of a shooting.
If the football coach had been brave enough to sacrifice his life, Aaron said, he would have been brave enough to use a firearm against the shooter.
“You can’t prevent tragedies,” Aaron said. “The best you can do is mitigate it when it happens.”
