At ease with Silent Arms

TERRE HAUTE, Nov. 20 -- The soldiers are at ease ... for now.\nThey do not march; they stroll. With eyes that practically drool, the soldiers gaze at tables cluttered with price-tagged weapons. They clutch Bowie knives with purpose, aim shotguns at imaginary targets or test the comfort of Army helmets. Some of the soldiers arrive unarmed; others come prepared for the frontlines. They enter the room with long blades hidden in sheaths or rifles slung over shoulders or pistols gripped in palms.\nTheir arms are silent ... for now.\nHandcuffs deaden the thousands of triggers of every gun in the room. These locked firearms lack ammunition, but bullets are available for purchase -- bags and bags of bullets rich in luster, pointed in shape and fresh with the potential of bang and blood.\nThis room of soldiers at ease with silent arms is a flea market of legal weapons, an armory of constitutionally approved assault.\n*****\nThis room is the floor of a gun show.\nBy the end of 2004, about 100 gun shows will have been held all over Indiana. Some gun shows, like the annual Indy 1500 Gun and Knife Show, bring in hundreds of dealers and thousands of collectors. However, most shows cater to small crowds of citizens who represent the tens of millions registered to bear the hundreds of millions of guns in America. \nOne of these smaller gun shows was held at the National Guard Armory in Terre Haute this November. Like most shows, it took place over a weekend during which dealers rented table space, which cost anywhere from $10 to $75. \nWhen the doors of the Terre Haute gun show opened, customers walked into a basketball court stocked with guns of all types: handguns, shotguns, rifles, war antiques, used guns, new guns, guns of steel, guns of wood, blowguns, cap guns and rubber band guns. Mixed in with the firearms were blades: pocket knives, Bowie knives, machetes, bayonets, swords, daggers, ulus and knives that commemorated everyone from Dale Earnhardt to Princess Diana. Then there were the dealers who specialized in selling military surplus items: boots, helmets, ponchos, mess kits, holsters, patches and one corned beef hash MRE (Meal-Ready-to-Eat).\nEverything a soldier could ever need was there.\nThe items at the gun show all had price tags, but that didn't dissuade bargaining and bartering because many brought their own weapons to sell or trade. Signs on the entrance practically yelled to visitors: "Absolutely No Loaded Weapons Allowed." Before people could buy tickets, any ammunition had to be removed, and a FlexCuff (a plastic manacle) was fastened around every trigger. Anyone who wanted to buy a gun at the show had to pass a background check first.\n*****\nThis room is an America far away from IU.\nIn IU's America, you'll see a girl with a North Face jacket and a Louis Vuitton handbag at Cold Stone Creamery looking for low-fat ice cream. In a gun show's America, you'll see a woman dressed in Carhartts and a Harley Davidson jacket looking for a high-power rifle. \nHunters, target shooters, union workers, veterans and Civil War re-enactors go to gun shows. So do lawyers, doctors and businessmen. You can go ahead and call them rednecks -- they'll be likely to call you a snob if you do -- but don't call them extremists. They hate that. \n"A lot of the way people see us is because of the media," says Dennis Weir, a military surplus dealer from Crawfordsville. "They make us look bad because they think we contribute to crime just because we love guns. That's crazy. This stuff here is not what crime is about."\nWeir, like many who belong to a gun show's America, is certain that guns don't cause crime; people cause crime. If you don't believe him, he'll tell you to look at the at the statistics.\nFor instance, look at what's happened in Washington, D.C. since 1976, when lawmakers imposed a ban on all handguns. In the first 15 years of the ban, the homicide rate rose 200 percent. And don't forget about when Florida adopted a right-to-carry law in 1987-- in the first 10 years of the law, the state homicide rate dropped 36 percent.\nThe facts don't lie, Weir will say; guns don't cause crime, guns keep America safe.\nIn IU's America, you'll meet students who are angry about the lift on the assault weapons ban. In a gun show's America, you'll meet people who believe the Second Amendment is the most important freedom in the Constitution.\nJim Morrison, a collector from Rockville, Ind., who was at the Terre Haute show, is perceptive at spotting those who do not belong in a gun show's America. When he sees a reporter taking notes, he knows the reporter isn't comparing shotgun prices. \nYou're in college aren't you? (He was correct.) I bet there are a lot of liberals where you go to school, aren't there? (Again, he was correct.)\nLiberals couldn't be more out of touch with our country. Just look at the election. They were absolutely stunned when they lost. Absolutely stunned. They have no idea how many they're up against. They call us extremists, but they don't know anything about us. (How does that make you feel to think that people don't take you seriously?) I don't understand it. It's like the media has this stigma against us because they think we're dangerous criminals. It's not like just anyone here can come in and get a gun. This place is as safe as any other. \nThere's a movement to disarm our country. Look, any weapon can be an assault weapon if you want it to be. It doesn't matter if it's automatic or not. Any gun can kill a person. Just because you have a gun, that doesn't mean you're a threat. Nobody realizes that we're all sportsmen here, and too many people don't understand how important the Second Amendment is and how much we value it. (Do you have an automatic weapon?) I have an Uzi, and it's a better investment than anything on the stock market. I bought it for $3,000 and it's already worth $6,500. But that's not the real issue. What matters is that it's my right to own that weapon. When I fire that Uzi, there's a feeling of freedom I get because I know that I have the right to protect against evil and terrorists.\n*****\nThis room is friendship.\nLarry Milner and Harold Bowden have known each other since they checked into the same hospital in 1975 -- Milner went in with a broken neck, Bowden with back problems. Today, both are confined to motorized wheelchairs, and they attend gun shows whenever they can.\n"We're not gun-crazy," Milner says, "we're just crazy about guns."\nAt the Terre Haute show both Milner and Bowden scooted around the room with rifles tucked between their legs. On the back of Bowden's wheelchair was a sign that read: "For sale: 22 rifle -- like new. Fine Bowie knife with sheath." By mid-afternoon he had had several offers, but so far none were good enough. \nEvery now and then, Milner and Bowden take a break from coasting past the tables of silent arms to chat by the concession stand where it smells like onions and chili. The two friends come to gun shows for the same reasons many others do: They love guns and cherish the Second Amendment. But they also come because they enjoy the good company.\n"We've been doing this a long time," Milner said. "He's probably regretted being friends with me ever since we met."\n*****\nThis room is white.\nIn the hours he spent at the gun show, the reporter saw more than 100 people, but only two were black: a man in his 30s and his son, who could not have been older than three.\nThe father often carried his son as he browsed the tables, and eventually he found the gun he liked. As he filled out the paperwork, the man made sure to keep his son close to his side. It was as if he was trying to protect his son from danger.\nLess than 20 minutes later, after his background check had cleared, a dealer gave the man the pistol in a box and sold it for $180. With the boxed gun under his right arm, the man picked up his son and started for the exit sign. As the man headed toward the door, his son looked back at the room filled with soldiers at ease with silent arms.\n*****\nThis room is "due."\nWhen he was a teenager, Jim Morrison listened to an old man on the street because no one else would.\nWe're due, the old man on the street told Morrison ... Due for history to repeat itself ... America is so young compared to other countries ... we've only had one civil war, one revolution ... we're due for a repeat. Now, decades later and with a full head of gray hair, Morrison is beginning to see some wisdom in his history lesson from the old man on the street.\n"The founding fathers gave us the Second Amendment to keep the government in check," Morrison said. "The country is so divided now. I'm afraid of where we're leading to. We're due, and the Second Amendment is the best defense we have."\n*****\nThis room won't go away without a fight.\nWith his rifle still clutched between his legs, Harold Bowden looks out at the tables loaded with thousands of silent arms, and he is bothered that so many people want to strip Americans of their "most important" constitutional right. But Bowden said he knows that the soldiers at this gun show comprise only a small battalion of a much greater army.\n"Multiply this show by the thousands and you'll begin to realize how difficult it would be to take guns away from Americans," Bowden said, adding that people will always find ways to obtain firearms. "In 30 seconds I could build a gun that could kill a man."\n-- Contact staff writer Colin \nKearns at cmkearns@indiana.edu.