The war memorabilia people do that. ;) Some of them would give an eyetooth to get their hands on my grandfather's AEF "French Handbook for Soldiers"... ("John is in the infirmary. His horse slipped and fell on him yesterday." "That is the sister of the German spy." "The Germans shelled our trenches. They are very poor shots.")

I'm drawn to print, not hardware. So while others in my little group are looking at merchandise to use at their matches, my attention wanders.

So I read the stuff on the tables.

The fringe stuff is there. There's not a lot of it, and it's put in out-of-the-way places, but it's there.

Also this stuff, which titles I'm reading off the shelf to my right (oh, the irony!), all purchased at gun shows:

Improvised Munitions Handbook



Explosives and Demolitions

Boobytraps

Unconventional Warfare and Techniques (2 editions)

...and maybe half a dozen others, all publications of various branches of the US military.

What can I say? We're reference nuts here.

But I wonder, at work, when we talk about the FBI, if I can go into these big halls and buy this material (which, incidentally, doesn't appear at the public library because we aren't a Federal depository library, but which would be available through interlibrary loan) for a couple of dollars, would the NRA support warrantless fishing expeditions into the sales records of people selling this material to who knows who, who knows why? Would the NRA support putting a gag order on the sellers so they wouldn't tell their customers about any investigation?

Thank you all for taking my word for it that I have seen what I have seen. :) It could be -- it's probable, I'd say -- that gun shows vary from place to place and your location doesn't allow this material. It could be that you miss it because you're looking for something else.

Regards--
Mary Anne