Gates, N.Y. – There was a line wrapped around the building at Rochester Tech Park Saturday.“It's been popular but never this popular,” gun owner Francis Stock said.
Thousands of gun buyers came out to the Original Gun Show in Gates; leaving with bags and boxes filled with just about everything, from antiques to AR-15s.
“I think a lot of people are scared that the laws are going to change, they want to buy something now,” Mike Centola, Owner of AllStar Tactical said.
Centola says that's part of the reason why he sold out of all of his firearms in just three days.
He says it’s also the reason why he couldn't set up a booth at the gun show.
After the shootings in Newtown, CT and West Webster, some people say there shouldn't have been a gun show set up at all.
At least four gun shows near Newtown decided to cancel events.
Organizers of a gun show set for next week in Saratoga Springs agreed not to display or sell semi-automatic weapons.
That wasn’t the case in Gates this weekend.
Our 13WHAM Facebook page lit up with opinions.
Sandy Leary says, "The timing is very inappropriate; would have been a class act to move the date out of respect for the four men and their families!"
Brian Douglas Richard says, “As tragic as these events are, the world does not stop. Life goes on and as painful as these events are... one eventually has to move on.”
Gun owners say there's another issue.
“I don't believe the firearms are the problem,” Centola said. “I have a three and a four-year-old and we're very safe. I believe in education very strongly.”
“Criminals put a bad name on everybody and criminals will get a method to kill people no matter what,” Stock said.
“I don't think that any sort of ban or any sort of laws on firearms is going to affect the issue at all, it's more of a mental health issue and really solving the problems behind it,” Centola said.
Centola tells 13WHAM News that after the Newtown shootings, he offered free training services for responsible gun owners.
The organizers of the Original Gun Show declined comment.
