As an act of solidarity with the shooting community, we attended the gun show at Megamall yesterday. Some observations:

1. The dealers and employees who are our long time friends over the years went out of their way to greet us and make us feel welcome. We enjoyed our long chats about their latest products and complimentary food by Willi Hahn of Hahn Manila and Gina Angangco and Bob Sajot of Armscor. As a result, since we had some extra cash, we were seduced into buying some new goodies. (JJFAT got a Norinco M4 and I will be getting the Colt M4 .22 hehe).

2. Prices have gone substantially upwards. The traditional brands of guns such as Glock, S&W, Mossberg, have all gone from the usual 25-35K to about 50-65K. The prices of the finer pistols and hunting rifles such as Sig Sauer, Para Ord, Colt, Anshutz have gone though the roof at 80-100K+.

3. There is an increase in assault weapons and fun replicas. The stars of the show were of course the various models of the Israeli assault weapon TAVOR and the SIG 5.56 rifles at Twin Pines. There were also some very lovely AKs and RPDs at Twin Pines for sale. Some very interesting items were the replica .22 M4 assault rifles by armscor (36K) and Colt (53K, made in Germany by Walther licensed by Colt). Airguns such as El Gamo and Hatsan are now proliferating the market.

4. More and better accessories such as tac lights, optics, rails, and knives have now become available. A new item was the Israeli-made polymer frame by FAB which attaches to a Glock pistol and turns it into an SMG sized weapon, with butt stock.

5. Due to the Western European arms boycott of the Philippines, there was a substantial absence of quality European Guns but a substantial increase in the cheaper South American, Israeli, Turkish, and Chinese guns. Thus, brands such as “Rexor”, “Bersa”, Akkar, and FAB, Hatsan, now proliferated the show at bargain prices below 20K. If you are a first time buyer, and not a discriminating shooter, then these guns are a suitable alternative to the branded guns.

6. This year the seminars were dry, with uninteresting speakers and topics. Just some old unknown men talking about gun safety, which are topics that we all know already. This could be much improved with better and more relevant topics such as our upcoming Armed Citizens Seminars and use of deadly force.

7. The Airsoft community participation went absent this year, with past controversies regarding the airsoft range last year and other issues. As a result the much vaunted UAA military fashion show which was the star of the show since 2007, did not anymore grace the show.