I was living in California and went to the Orange County gun show during the last month that you could legally buy a .50 cal centerfire rifle there. It was REALLY packed and I later read that they sold more of those rifles in 1 month than they had in the past 5 years, in California. Sooooo many people were scrambling to get AT LEAST a receiver. Companies had deals where you could just buy the receiver now, and they would build the rest of the rifle for you later.
Gun shows there lost much of their fun though, especially once the city of Pomona banned the big gun show and it was forced to move to Las Vegas. FTF deals required FFL transfers, so if you came across somebody walking around the show with a rifle you wanted, you'd have to walk over to a dealer table and do the transfer for $35 ($25 state fee + $10 for the dealer). The dealers in CA are required by law to transfer long guns (handguns, only if they sell them), but, strangely, their computers always went down right when you needed to do one. Then, if you magically were able to get the dealer to do the transfer, you could walk home with your prize in 10 days.
I was at the same show. Crossroads of the west right. Yes sir i lived in commifornia up until 6 months ago and after this last show i must say i love texas.