Gun enthusiasts connect, do business at semiannual show

While thousands of dollars worth of transactions take place at the semiannual Missouri Gun and Knife Show, promoter J.D. King insists that the event isn't about business.

"I'm not doing it as a business," said King, who has been putting on the show at Cape Girardeau's Show Me Center since 2002 after holding gun shows at the Arena Building previously. "I'm just doing it more as a hobby."

The Missouri Gun and Knife Show gives dealers, collectors, shooters and hobbyists a chance to connect. King said while the fall show tends to attract more hunters looking for guns, the spring show, which began Friday and ended Sunday, is more popular with collectors. That is exactly what prompted he and co-promoter Jody Geiser to start the event.

"I started collecting guns when I was real young," King said. "In order to upgrade your collection, you need to sell. I thought, 'Well, the only thing to do is to do like a lot of people and have a gun show.'"

King estimated attendance at this year's show would top 7,000, roughly about the same amount as last year's spring event. About 120 dealers and collectors had exhibits at the show.

Not all the sales at the event were made by those who invested in table space. Visitors are welcome to conduct business on the floor, which Jamie Barber of Frohna, Mo., has become very proficient at doing.

"I walk around and sell," said Barber, who was at the final day of the sale Sunday with husband Gavin, who is a collector.

Barber said she sold two rifles, two pistols and a canteen between 9:30 a.m. and 2 p.m.

Because the Barbers have come to the show regularly for years, customers know to look for them on the floor.

"All the gentlemen around here know me," Jamie Barber said. "They actually find me."

Having sold out the merchandise they brought in the door, the Barbers turned their attention to trying to find an M1A semi-automatic military rifle for Gavin's collection.

Some exhibitors at the show were attending for the first time this year, such as Jim Moffatt and Roy Dexter of Memphis, Tenn. Moffatt and Dexter bought out a couple of gunsmith estates last fall and also bought the parts inventory of a gun dealer that went out of business last month. They now travel to gun shows and sell replacement barrels, stocks and forearms of guns. They only brought replacement shotgun parts to the Cape Girardeau show.

"We're extremely pleased," Moffatt said. "This show is more organized than any of the shows we've been to. The staff is more cordial. They really have it all together."

Moffatt and Dexter go to about 12 to 15 gun shows a year and say the Missouri Gun and Knife Show is "bigger than any show we've done. There's more people coming through the gate."

Another vendor attending for the first time was David Book of Centerville, Iowa. Book owns McCannon Creek Trade Co., which specializes in collectibles and memorabilia.

"I sell memories," said Book, whose merchandise included a variety of antique tools, trinkets, books and other items from the mid-19th century through the 1950s.

Book, who participates in French and Indian War and Revolutionary War re-enactments as a hobby, displayed an assortment of vintage Hudson's Bay blankets, which are popular among re-enactors who want their gear to be authentic to the time period.

Book said he made the 374-mile trip to Cape Girardeau for the show because "it's a part of Missouri I'd never been in. I wanted to meet new people."