Gun show remains popular
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Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 16/12/2019 (2135 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.
The Brandon Wildlife Association officially capped off 2019 by hosting its 36th annual Gun and Collectibles Show inside the Keystone Centre’s Manitoba Room over the weekend.
The two-day event, which took place Saturday and Sunday, featured a total of 73 vendors who came together to provide the largest selection of rifles, shotguns, edged weapons, military memorabilia and hunting equipment for sale in the entire province.
This group included Donna and Will Bilozir from Foothills County, Alta., who have been making the more than 1,000-kilometre trek to this show for the past 12 years to sell their wares.
While the pair admitted sales were a little flat on opening day, Donna said they can always rely on the show to help them turn a profit.
“People are here to buy,” she said on Saturday afternoon. “You could also say (the event) is well organized. It’s well advertised and it draws a lot of people. So that’s why we keep coming back.”
Between 1,500 and 1,700 gun enthusiasts from Brandon and all over Western Canada showed up to the opening day of this year’s show, according to Brandon Wildlife Association president Don Teale.
Teale went on to say that the event has regularly drawn around 2,500 attendees every year since it debuted in 1983.
The Brandon Wildlife Association president also mentioned that this show serves as one of the organization’s biggest yearly fundraisers, which helps them keep membership fees down.
Coupled with the record amount of entries that the organization received during their recent Big Buck Awards fundraiser, which took place the previous weekend, Teale said the Brandon Wildlife Association is ending 2019 on a definite high note.
“We had 192 (heads), and that’s the biggest we’ve ever had since conception,” he said, referring to the awards. “So this is a good year for the club.”
Moving forward, Will Bilozir just hopes that the Liberal government’s current posturing toward stricter gun regulations doesn’t impede his and his wife’s ability to make the trip to Brandon for next year’s show.
“I’m quite comfortable with firearm regulations that actually do make a difference and do make things safer,” he said. “But some of them have zero to do with public safety. It all has to do with virtue signalling and stuff like that.”
» kdarbyson@brandonsun.com
» Twitter: @KyleDarbyson
