Gun Show Safety: What Attendees Need to Know

We keep Midwest Arms Collector Gun Shows safe by making sure everyone–attendees, vendors, and staff—practices proper gun show safety. Gun safety rules reduce the risk of firearm accidents that can put lives and bodies in danger. They also help create a friendly, inviting place for a family-friendly Second Amendment gathering unlike any other. Whether this is your first gun show or your thousandth, here’s what to expect at our professionally managed events.

Gun Show Safety Isn’t Just Lip Service

Gun show safety is our top priority. Every person who enters our doors is expecting a safe environment for the duration of their visit. One that keeps them, their loved ones, and their personal property protected from violence, theft, and malicious behavior. We recognize there’s a lot on the line:

• Health and Lives: People expect an environment where they can feel safe while buying, selling, and trading. While plenty of anti-gun forces would love to paint a gun show as inherently dangerous, there are a lot of potential causes of injury that have nothing to do with firearms. Slips, falls, escalated disagreements, carelessness, and more can all result in trouble at any home or business. Our gun show safety procedures don’t just focus on guns. 
• Personal Security: People visiting gun shows have money to spend–often in cash. Thieves and scam artists know this. We actively work to keep our attendees, vendors, and staff safe with paid professional security on sight.
• Merchandise: That security doesn’t stop overnight. Our shows feature over a million dollars worth of merchandise at our smallest venues.  
• Rights: The anti-gun lobby loves incidents at gun shows, whether or not they involve guns. Any injury, altercation, or event risks making it onto the evening news to smear gun owners and sellers and chip away at our freedoms. We won’t stand for it.

Basic Gun Show Safety Rules

To keep our gun shows safe, we expect everyone to follow common-sense gun safety rules along with a few gun show safety addendums. These help give the whole family a better gun show experience by reducing injury risks and providing a few etiquette rules for those who may be new or uncertain about guns or handling guns around others.

1. No Loaded Guns

We don’t allow loaded guns at our shows. Exhibitor guns will be empty and properly secured. Any guns brought in by attendees for sale or trade will be checked at the door to verify they’re unloaded and then tied to show they’ve been inspected, made safe, and can’t be loaded inadvertently.

2. But Treat Every Gun As Loaded

While no loaded guns are allowed, you should still follow the cardinal gun safety rule to treat every gun as loaded. Even after being shown a weapon is unloaded and safe by a vendor, make sure not to point the weapon at any person or thing, even if sighting down the barrel while considering a purchase. Find a dead corner of the rafters or another acceptable direction nearby to work with.

3. No Loose Ammo or Loaded Mags

As part of our gun show safety parameters for vendors and attendees alike, no loose ammunition or loaded magazines are allowed. While many of our vendors offer great deals on ammo purchased by the box or bulk, this ammo shouldn’t be opened until you leave the premises. Likewise, keep those box magazines empty since loading a gun with them is prohibited anyway.

4. Supervise Your Kids and Teens

We love to see responsible gun owners passing on their passion for our rights to the next generation. We don’t love it when it’s assumed our staff, vendors, or other guests will be free babysitting. The conduct of any minor is the responsibility of the adult that brought them. They should never be left alone at the gun show. While older kids and teens can be given parental discretion to browse on their own, make sure they understand the expectations that they’ll behave politely, follow kids gun safety rules, and know where their parents are whether you’re a few tables away or a few aisles over.

5. Leave Your Pets at Home

Service animals are highly trained to provide specific support for individuals who need help for safe independence. Service animals are always welcome at our gun shows, and if other accommodations are needed, please reach out to us before the event. Pets–even those that are trained–should be left at home. Gun shows are often noisy, crowded, and filled with strange smells that can overload even the most polite companion animals. For their comfort and safety, as well as humans at our shows, let them sit this one out. 

6. Ask Before Touching

Just like your momma told you, look with your eyes and not with your hands. If you want to touch or examine merchandise, talk to the vendor manning the table. If they have merchandise out already for examination, don’t touch it if you aren’t interested. This isn’t just a gun show safety rule but a basic tenet of politeness when shopping from a small business. 

7. Be a Responsible Member of the Community

Gun shows are a great place to buy, sell, and trade guns, knives, accessories, and just about anything else. They’re also a vital part of our Second Amendment community that brings together local and regional gun and business owners with the broader public for a weekend of fun, shopping, and camaraderie. Do your part to protect this uniquely American experience. Follow the gun safety rules, look out for each other, and talk to a member of the staff or security if you see anything that needs fixing. Whether it’s more toilet paper in the men’s room or someone security might want to keep an eye on, if it’s important to creating a superior gun show experience, then it’s important to us.

Order Your Local Gun Show Tickets Online

Now is the time to plan your visit to a gun show near you. Take a look at our gun show calendar, find your date, and brush up on your gun safety rules. Order your tickets online from MAC Shows today.