As a card carrying firearm's enthusiast (a/k/a gun nut), I usually go to gun shows once or twice a month. One thing I've noticed is that gun shows in Virginia seem to pale in comparison to gun shows in Ohio. I still remember my disappointment at my first Northern Virginia gun show. I could hardly believe how few tables the gun shows in this area have. I hate to run down the fine folks at Old Dominion Gun Shows, who do all the shows in Northern Virginia, but the shows up here are tiny. Come to think of it, the gun stores up here are tiny too, but I digress.

The largest show put on by ODGS has 225 tables. To put that in perspective, the Berea/Cleveland Ohio show usually has 800 tables. Even the show in the tiny city of Mansfield where I used to live has 350 tables. Mansfield is a town of about 45,000 and is surrounded by, well, nothing.

Probably most notable is the lack of bulk ammunition at shows in Virginia. At the Ohio shows, you could buy ammo by the 1000 round case, and most vendors would even let you use their dolly to take a few cases out to your car. So far I've been to several Bealeton and Dale City shows, and I've yet to see ammo sold by the case. That means I'm left using online vendors like Ohio based AIM Surplus, or Cheaper Than Dirt out of Texas.

I have no explanation for the size disparity between the two states. Is it that Ohioans buy more guns, or are Virginians subjected to some strange gun show size limitations? One of these days I'll drive down to Richmond or maybe even Roanoke/Salem to find out. Those shows are put on by different promoters, so perhaps they are a bit bigger. For now, I just have to tough it out.