A Quaker Attends a Gun Show

Seeking a Process of Peace

I’ve recently been reading Peace Is a Process by Quaker peace activist Sydney D. Bailey, who was active in the 1940s through 1970s. In the book, published as the 1993 Swarthmore Lecture to Britain Yearly Meeting, Bailey states that Quakers must first understand the environments blocking peace in order for them to be successful peacemakers. With gun violence a major obstacle to peace in many neighborhoods, I decided that attending a gun show might help me better understand one of the most significant public health issues in the United States today.

Every few months a three-day event called the Nation’s Gun Show is held at the Dulles Expo Center in Chantilly, Va., on Route 28 near a Walmart Supercenter and a Holiday Inn. The venue is fronted by large parking lots and the adjacent Walmart parking lot is also available.

Late last year an event was held on the weekend between Christmas and New Year, when most people are on holiday. My first attempt to attend on Friday afternoon, December 27, 2024, was thwarted by full parking lots and long ticket lines. I was interested in attending, but not so much that I would walk half a mile or wait in a ticket line. So I promised myself to be there early the next morning.

Saturday morning was much less crowded, but only for the first hour. The gun show took up the entire expo center. The early crowd was mostly men about 50 years old or above, with several bringing grandchildren along. Later attendees included younger families with kids. The signs at the entrance asked attendees to unload ammunition if they were carrying a concealed weapon, but I didn’t feel any threat from these people. They were mostly middle and working class, the crowd one might see at Walmart or Giant supermarkets.

Entering the show area, my immediate reaction was one of shock at the amount and types of weapons on display. Antique rifles sat next to modern handguns, ornate swords next to knives designed to kill with one strike to the heart, automatic weapons like AR-15 military style combat weapons. Handguns were the big sellers. But what struck me most was the volume of ammunition. I couldn’t estimate beyond guessing that it was in the millions of bullets and shells.

Survivalists were present, but also several tables full of first-aid equipment, tourniquets, and blood clotting bandages—virtually anything a first responder would need in a shooting incident before the professionals arrived to stop the bleeding and clear the air flows.

I walked up to a table with about 50 or 60 handguns for sale. The man running the table looked to be around 35 years old. I told him that this was my first time at a gun show and that I had weapons training in the Air Force and before that an assignment in Iraq. His response was, “Then you are overwhelmed.” He was right. In the Air Force and State Department, security weapons are tightly controlled. He said, “Just look around and take your time. No hurry.” He was cordial and not trying to shove a sale on me.

So who was buying? Tables in the middle were for those registering to buy guns. I didn’t see any empty chairs. People everywhere now have guns. Most buy guns for personal or home protection at these events, which explains the emphasis on small-caliber handguns of .22, .380, or 9mm of the Glock variety. Ruger .380, which fits into a medium or small hand, are also popular.

The bullets in these won’t make it through a wall. A 12-gauge shotgun is also short range, whereas an AR-15 or AK-47 automatic can travel through three houses in a neighborhood with deadly effect or a mile through the air before descending into a roof. I did notice a number of young Black women buying handguns.

My key takeaway was seeing just how deeply weapons and their accessories are integrated into the American economy. It forces one to contemplate the ordinariness of guns and knives in homes and a society where so many people feel unsafe. I was reminded of Hannah Arendt’s phrase “the banality of evil,” here in Chantilly, in a common venue where violence is treated with maximum friendliness and courtesy, with ownership a civic duty.

What is to be done? As Sydney D. Bailey says, we will not be successful making peace in our lifetimes because peace is a process. Our job is to minimize the damage and the terrible effects on victims, and work on our own psychology.

There are several ways to proceed. We need to get together and brainstorm.

Perhaps an argument can be made to force gun owners to buy liability insurance. Surely the insurance industry must find that an attractive idea. Some have argued for identifiable ammunition, although this might be impossible since homemade ammunition-making equipment was sold at the gun show.

As I understand it, the increasing prevalence of guns in the U.S. will lead to more violence. I would advise interested people to have training on first aid for a gunshot wound, the kind that saves lives until first responders arrive.

Perhaps a turn toward right-wing governments will be part of the solution. Do you see guns in China? In Russia? In North Korea? No: autocrats understand the threat. While they favor guns when out of power, they impose strict controls once they have it. If I had to make a “black swan” counter-intuitive prediction for the next year or two, it would be that the Trump Administration will call for stricter controls on guns.

We could also look for ways to deal with the issue from a personal perspective. What steps can we take as individual Quakers? If peace is a process, and if getting control of gun violence is a process, what is our individual part of that work?