Good crowd at gun show despite snowy weather

By James Grob, jgrob@charlescitypress.com

Charles City’s Bob Kellogg remembers attending local gun shows when he was a kid in the late 1960s and early 1970s.

“I remember that I wasn’t so much interested in the guns as I was the knives — I remember looking at switchblade knives and thinking they were the coolest thing,” Kellogg said.

Kellogg, now a gun dealer in Charles City, had four tables full of military gear and collectibles this weekend at the Floyd County Youth Enrichment Center at the fairgrounds. The gun show, hosted by Kraus Promotions, took place Friday evening and all day Saturday and Sunday.

“It’s bringing in a lot of out-of-town people,” said Kellogg, who added that people dropping by were looking for a variety.

“Some people are buying, some people are just looking — we’re getting a little bit of everything,” he said. “There are always a few coming in to trade — it’s a great outlet for people to bring in a gun and legally transfer it to a dealer.”

Many of the dealers also offered free appraisals. About half of the gun dealers who set up at the show travel from show to show, and the rest of the tables were filled with local and regional gun and outdoors dealers. Most of the dealers took trade, and all the dealers had the required federal background checks. A permit was necessary to purchase a pistol, and all other local, state and federal laws applied.

Kellogg said that there was high traffic despite the snowstorm that covered the area Friday and Friday night.

“Weather considering, it’s been good,” he said.

The event was open to the public, and a large selection of new and used merchandise was on display. Different shop owners from all over the state set up inventory, and Kraus Promotions covered expenses such as advertising and liability insurance.

Kellogg said that he’d put on some gun shows himself in the past, and he was pleased to have one back in town.

“It’s a pretty neat thing for Charles City,” he said. “I put one on in the early 1990s. I did a couple at the armory and one at the old Spurgeon’s building in the mall.”

Kellogg said that these days, promoters like Kraus are more likely to handle shows than individual dealers.

“It’s a lot of work, and dealers will use these guys for the ease of advertising and the connections they have,” he said.

This is the second time Kraus Promotions has held a show in Charles City. The organization put on a show here last year, and promoter Andrew Kraus said he was hopeful the event would return to Charles City every year.

“We are always trying to find new venues and get new crowds for vendors,” Andrew Kraus said. “We had a pretty good crowd today (Saturday). The snow slowed us down a little bit.”

Promoter Marv Kraus started the gun shows 28 years ago at the fairgrounds in Waverly, and they grew. The group put on 31 shows last year throughout the upper Midwest, and cut back to 25 this year.

Kellogg said that he and Matt Ross at Ross’s Guns & Ammo of Charles City talked Kraus Promotions into coming to town.

“We talked to Marv about trying to have a show in Charles City, and he decided to do it,” Kellogg said. “Last year, after the Saturday show, he decided to book for this year, and hopefully he’ll book again for next year. We’ll have to see.”