I guess you must live pretty close to the show not to worry about what could happen to you while traveling there. Me, I am far from most shows, at least from any worth going to, so I always carry while en route. In recent years, I usually let them know I am armed and let them tie it, that is though only if they ask me if I am armed. If they do not ask me as I walk in, I just keep going and assume that I am not required to unload and tie my pistol; if I had been so required they should have let me know it. If you time it right, you can walk into virtually any gun show without being so notified.
As far as being safe when inside a gun show, I have seen way too many people pointing loaded guns at others (virtually everyone of them was a LEO who was allowed to carry into the show). I think the worst I have seen was the supposed Chief of Police up in White Plains (that is how he ID'd self to me and it was later confirmed by a SO). He pulled out a revolver, finger on trigger, and pointed it at a dealer several times, at the crowd too and at me, he also slowly worked the action with his thumb on the hammer while pointing it at the dealer and his wife. He actually got extremely pissed when I had the nerve (according to him it was nerve) to ask him if he knew his revolver was loaded (which I clearly could see it was) and to ask if he was aware he had repeatedly covered people with a loaded gun. He became irate, indignant and arrogant and asked me who I was to question him and asked if I knew who he was and he then told me he was the Chief of Police and he knew what he was doing. I went right back at him, told him who I was, and am pretty sure I made him feel about 2 inches tall in telling him so and in telling him off. As I was doing that, the dealer took it from him and unloaded it. I reported that fool but am sure that it went nowhere. A local sheriff's officer told me the guy was an absolute air-head and confirmed he was the chief of police for the city. That no one has been shot and killed at a gun show recently, by just such a know it all moron, is amazing. Guys like him give a bad reputation to LE everywhere.
Of course, then there are the arsehat and lunatic factors. One guy I saw could have been either or both. He took a shotgun from a rack, started looking at it as the dealer looked on, then pulled shells out of his pocket and started to load it. Thank goodness the dealer was paying attention and stepped in to put an end to that- otherwise who knows what may have happened. I am sure you have seen guys, at gun shows, muzzling the crowd with a supposed unloaded firearm. What is to stop someone from buying a mag or three, buying some ammo, loading them up in the head, then going out to a table - grabbing the right firearm and snipping off the nylon tie and going berserk. It probably won't be the guy who had been carrying a pistol but who had to unload it and have it tied up at the front door.
