The Eastern Sports and Outdoor Show is billed as the largest show of its kind in North America. But after the event made a decision to ban assault weapons and high capacity magazines, it may now lose that title.
"We felt that getting involved last year was a good business decision. It has a lot of coverage, a lot of exposure," said Ben Bode of Trop Gun Shop in Elizabethtown.
Trop was one of the first vendors to boycott the show, and their customers responded. Trop's Facebook page exploded with 'likes', they received letter, faxes and praise from clients.
But that's not the case for the nine-day-long show, which is scheduled to begin on February 2.
Since the announcement of the ban, this Facebook page calling for a boycott already has nearly 10,000 likes. This is the Facebook list of vendors that have pulled out; more than 175 along with 20 celebrity speakers.
"While it was certainly a big decision, we could not rectify participating in something like that with an organization that is not supporting our second amendment rights." Bode said.
We did ask Bode at Trop Gun Shop if the store would consider going back to the Eastern Sports and Outdoor Show if the organizers dropped the ban. And he said no, the damage has been done.
The show has about 1200 vendors, so about 15% are gone.