LIVE OAK, Texas – As the national debate over gun control gets louder, people at a gun show in Live Oak worried more gun control would lead to less freedom.
Attendance at this weekend’s show was up – way up: double the average.
"[Wayne] LaPierre from the NRA said it the best,” shopper Robert Dandridge said. “He said the only way to stop a bad person with a gun is a good person with a gun."
Dandridge noticed supply inside the show was low.
"They've run out of quite a few things,” he said.
And prices are high on the same types of weapons that have come under fire since the Newtown shootings.
"Before last week's incident you would pick up an AR-15, a base model, for somewhere around $800,” Texas Gun Shows owner Darwin Boedeker said. “Now you're seeing prices more around the $1,400 to $1,500 range."
Boedeker said the top seller by far, though, was ammunition.
"As supply runs out, prices run up,” he said.
But he said people are shelling out anyway because they’re worried there might soon be restrictions on the amount of ammo they can buy.
"It won't be any harder for the criminals though because they're always going to be able to get their hands on the guns,” Boedeker said.
Shoppers like Dandridge said what happened in Connecticut was definitely a tragedy, but a knee-jerk reaction won’t prevent another one.
"I think that some people with agendas are going just too far out and blaming the guns,” he said.
It’s clear, though: lawmakers plan to enforce some type of gun control in the coming months.
Boedeker said he would like lawmakers to take smaller steps into consideration. He suggested giving felons a different-colored driver’s license. That way, Boedeker said, he would know to not let them into shows.
