Update: New promoter steps in! Gun shows in MA are Back on!

Rockrivr1

Rockrivr1

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New Update! Eagle Promotion steps in and the Marlboro show is back on in May!

gunshowtrader.com

Marlborough Gun Show 2025 • Marlborough, Massachusetts

May 17-18, 2025 | The Marlborough Gun Show is held at Best Western Royal Plaza Trade Center in Marlborough, MA and promoted by Eagle Shows.
gunshowtrader.com gunshowtrader.com




Actually I’m not all that surprised. They ran a pretty crappy operation. The NY Ammo guys pulled out of Springfield and the last Marlboro show only had 5 tables with guns. The promoter ran it into the ground.

Email was sent this morning stating to attend the last MA Gun Show in Springfield. Unless another promoter picks it up gun shows in MA are dead. No big loss I guess but still.




IMG_0795.png
 
Last edited:
Rockrivr1 said:
Actually I’m not all that surprised. They ran a pretty crappy operation. The NY Ammo guys pulled out of Springfield and the last Marlboro show only had 5 tables with guns. The promoter ran it into the ground.

Email was sent this morning stating to attend the last MA Gun Show in Springfield. Unless another promoter picks it up gun shows in MA are dead. No big loss I guess but still.




View attachment 972395
Click to expand...
That really sucks, even if the Big E one has slipped in quality over the years.
 
People like to make comparisons of the dying/disappearing gun shows to the computer shows of 20 +/- years ago and there are similarities. The Internet played a significant part in killing both. Both also just ran out of steam. They got boring, repetitive and weren't worth the time and money to attend any longer. Dealers were also admitting it just wasn't worth the cost and effort anymore. Plus, you could do just as well or better shopping elsewhere.

Still, I blame Chapter 135 the most for this final collapse of the MA gun shows. Maura and the Legislature got exactly what they wanted... a significant weakening of the current and future MA pro-2A community. Will some new promoter pick-up the baton and run with it? Maybe GOAL or Toby Leary? Will the "core group" of dealers pick-up the pieces and run shows on their own? Will NH shows pick-up the slack?

I'd like to know... what was the last straw that broke the camel's back. That might give us the best clue about the future. 🤔
 
EJFudd said:
People like to make comparisons of the dying/disappearing gun shows to the computer shows of 20 +/- years ago and there are similarities. The Internet played a significant part in killing both. Both also just ran out of steam. They got boring, repetitive and weren't worth the time and money to attend any longer. Dealers were also admitting it just wasn't worth the cost and effort anymore. Plus, you could do just as well or better shopping elsewhere.

Still, I blame Chapter 135 the most for this final collapse of the MA gun shows. Maura and the Legislature got exactly what they wanted... a significant weakening of the current and future MA pro-2A community. Will some new promoter pick-up the baton and run with it? Maybe GOAL or Toby Leary? Will the "core group" of dealers pick-up the pieces and run shows on their own? Will NH shows pick-up the slack?

I'd like to know... what was the last straw that broke the camel's back. That might give us the best clue about the future. 🤔
Click to expand...

The laws suck for sure but the demise of this show was entirely due to the promoter's behavior and choices. This show circuit has been f***ing horrible for a decade
now. Like "paying money to visit a septic tank" kind of horrible. They basically turned into a toilet.

Also I disagree on the community thing... these shows have very little to do with the "2a community" anymore. They haven't for almost a decade now. They're practically
invisible. I would literally never tell a new shooter "yeah, the gun show is coming up, you should go" it is literally the LAST place I'd ever send anyone, on par with telling someone to go to
dicks or walmart to buy guns etc back when they sold that stuff. [rofl]

As far as "the future of shows in MA" goes, I'd rather see gun clubs running their own smaller shows vs this garbage.

I also don't think people like CGW want to be getting into this business. Places like FS and CGW make serious bank on gun show weekends because of all the people who would leave the shows buying nothing. [rofl]
 
ThePreBanMan said:
HArd to have a gun show when there's like 4 guns left that are legal to sell in this state.....
Click to expand...

These shows have been garbage long before the new laws were passed. The final straw was X yrs ago when they started harassing the ammo vendors and making them set up cordons
etc all because one minor incident happened that had absolutely nothing to do with the show itself.
 
It is just one more victory for this gun hating state. The Massachusetts legislature is getting exactly what they want out of the passing of the recent gun law. The gun shows may not have been that great of recent, however they still were gun shows. If we keep going in this direction nothing will be left not even gun shops. By the time we get most or all of this new anti gun legislation removed/overthrown, declared unconstitutional the dammage will already have been done. Little by little every thing is being chipped away from the Massachusetts gun owner.
 
EJFudd said:
People like to make comparisons of the dying/disappearing gun shows to the computer shows of 20 +/- years ago and there are similarities. The Internet played a significant part in killing both. Both also just ran out of steam. They got boring, repetitive and weren't worth the time and money to attend any longer. Dealers were also admitting it just wasn't worth the cost and effort anymore. Plus, you could do just as well or better shopping elsewhere.

Still, I blame Chapter 135 the most for this final collapse of the MA gun shows. Maura and the Legislature got exactly what they wanted... a significant weakening of the current and future MA pro-2A community. Will some new promoter pick-up the baton and run with it? Maybe GOAL or Toby Leary? Will the "core group" of dealers pick-up the pieces and run shows on their own? Will NH shows pick-up the slack?

I'd like to know... what was the last straw that broke the camel's back. That might give us the best clue about the future. 🤔
Click to expand...
8 letters.

INTERNET
 
Amazon, CompUSA, Best Buy (a little), and other retailers undercut prices on computer shows. Then Amazon killed CompUSA. Plus Microcenter was and is a better place to buy most computer stuff. One of the things I miss is Microcenter in Cambridge.

I was thinking about gun shows yesterday when I went to on for an hour or so (not in MA). Over all the years I went to gun shows I got two really good deals on guns. For most part now when I go to guns shows it's just to see what I might be interested in buying from a local FFL.

The whole beef jerkey, smoked cheese, jewelry thing is common in other states as well. The one I went to yesterday was advertised as "all guns, no beef jerky, no jewelry, no knives. Within 50 feet of the entrance I found a knife table, a jerky guy, a table with jewelry, and a guy selling cigars. I'd have bought a cigar or two, but his prices for hand rolled cigars were like gun prices.



EJFudd said:
People like to make comparisons of the dying/disappearing gun shows to the computer shows of 20 +/- years ago and there are similarities. The Internet played a significant part in killing both. Both also just ran out of steam. They got boring, repetitive and weren't worth the time and money to attend any longer. Dealers were also admitting it just wasn't worth the cost and effort anymore. Plus, you could do just as well or better shopping elsewhere.

Still, I blame Chapter 135 the most for this final collapse of the MA gun shows. Maura and the Legislature got exactly what they wanted... a significant weakening of the current and future MA pro-2A community. Will some new promoter pick-up the baton and run with it? Maybe GOAL or Toby Leary? Will the "core group" of dealers pick-up the pieces and run shows on their own? Will NH shows pick-up the slack?

I'd like to know... what was the last straw that broke the camel's back. That might give us the best clue about the future. 🤔
Click to expand...
 
No Way What GIF by Bernardson


Episode 2 Whatever GIF


the experience was still relatively alright, even if deals were sparse and chinesium junk was abundant. I'll always have fond memories of yesteryear, those they can't take from me.
 

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