The Knife and Gun Show in Dayton

There is a big “Bill Goodman's Knife and Gun Show” out at the Dayton airport exposition hall this weekend. I happened to be out there yesterday, attending a truckers' meeting next door. There were several thousand guys there. I didn't see any women but there may have been a few. It was clearly a very big event with all the parking lots filled to overflow and many RV's with people staying overnight.

I got to talking with some of my fellow truckers about this gun show and they really lit up. A lot of truckers are into guns and know the different makes and models, and the sizes of the ammunition.

The most memorable remarks I heard were about “the parking lot” and “Obama.” It seems that you can buy a very wide range of weapons at such shows but if you don't have the legal right because you are certified crazy or something, you can buy buy them “in the parking lot” or “in the aisles.” They also believe that President Obama has a secret plan to take their guns away from them. A third thing, after the “parking lot” and the “Obama” items that I learned, was that it's currently difficult to buy ammunition because all the usual stores are sold out of stock.

I myself have no interest in knives and guns and don't share any of these beliefs about Obama or the need for guns in schools or any of it. I lived several years in a low-income area of south-east London, in the UK, but even the police there did not carry weapons. So, no, I don't share any of it.

But I know a lot of these gun guys and they are just the nicest people you'll ever meet. The average academic person I've know from my years in the academy is a more dangerous human being than these guys.

Then there is this evangelical Christian couple, actually two such couples, who are very friendly with me. We've known each other for a long time and they like me even though they know that I think differently. I just can't picture Jesus owning an assault rifle, or carrying a concealed handgun, or getting excited about President Obama's putatively secret plan to take away people's guns. One of these ladies, who sincerely wants you to open your heart to Jesus Christ, is currently taking shooting lessons. She says that her principal worry is whether or not she will be able to pull the trigger when the moment comes to shoot someone.

The word “perspective” comes to my mind often when I think about all this, as in keeping a large perspective, like breaking out of a hypnosis.