Gun Shows Are Hot in Florida

Khaled Akkawi is said to be the biggest gun seller in the nation, selling 50,000 to 70,000 a year. His gun show displays are so large that he uses a Segway to get around. [Photo: Kelly LaDuke]

The Volume Dealer

Miami — Zipping around the Miami gun show on his Segway, Khaled Akkawi, the stern-faced owner of Shoot Straight Sports, makes for an imposing figure. Akkawi operates what is said to be the highest volume gun seller in the nation, selling 50,000 to 70,000 guns a year. The Lebanese immigrant has sold at gun shows for 28 years and has stores in Casselberry, Apopka and Tampa. Two more open this year in Fort Myers and Lakeland.

In an industry of small, crusty retailers, 120-employee Shoot Straight is the category-killer. Akkawi and his clean-cut staff wear khaki shirt uniforms. His major stores, including gun ranges, are larger than the average Office Depot. His three rows of tables at Miami are triple the table space operated by other large dealers, with the end of one row devoted entirely to processing payments — and running customers through required background checks.

Akkawi carries a broad assortment of firearms — “if they make it, we carry it” — but handguns make up three-quarters of his sales. He won’t disclose revenue. But retail margins on used weapons run 30%; on new, 15%, he says.

Akkawi tries to play by the rules. Some men who don’t want to undergo a background check try to hide purchases by bringing a woman to the show as a surrogate buyer. California professor and gun show researcher Garen Wintemute saw a Shoot Straight worker — perhaps Akkawi himself — approach one such woman and quiz her about her gun choice. The woman, clueless about the weapon, and her male companion were loudly driven away. It was the first time, Wintemute says, he’s seen someone “blow up a straw purchase.”

Why the Segway? Akkawi rents 80 tables at some shows, totaling 640 linear feet of display space.

“If you try to walk that, halfway through the day you’ll give out,” Akkawi says.