Barf alert. WA Post supports gun shows, sort of

[Monkeyleg]

Banning Gun Shows
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Sunday, November 26, 2000; Page B06

GUN SHOWS may not be huge draws in the Washington area, but twice a year for the past decade, good crowds have attended one at the Montgomery County Agricultural Fairgrounds. Now, however, county council members and state lawmakers are questioning whether the fairgrounds or any place in the county that receives public money should be open to gun shows.
The county has a law that effectively bans such shows by creating gun-free zones near public places. But the county law does not apply within municipalities such as Gaithersburg, home of the fairgrounds. County Executive Doug Duncan has urged all municipalities to adopt gun show bans.

_We support a federal ban on the general sales of handguns and absent that, laws to curb the all-too-free flow of these weapons._ Much of that unregulated flow is through gun shows; federal legislation is needed to close loopholes. But a local, blanket ban on gun shows--which generally include sales of long guns used for sport--is a flawed approach. Frank Krasner, president of the company that holds the fairgrounds gun show, notes that such a ban would limit what is currently legal trade. County council member Derick Berlage, author of the county law, would himself rather leave any decision about future fairgrounds gun shows to the fairgrounds directors.
State, county and local officials should not wait for Congress to enact tighter gun safety measures, including regulations on sales and ownership of handguns, registration of handguns and licensing of owners. But enacting a law that in this case would shut a single show operating under current law strikes us as misdirected.
© 2000 The Washington Post Company

Dick
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[ernest2]

What gun show opperators should do and may be
eventually forced to do is rent private property
not controled by liberal anti civil rights towns or
cities and far from publically owned building or schools.

What comes immediately to mind is unrented vacant commercial
properties; buildings where the kmart or caldor or bradlies
or A&P Supermarket has moved out.

Several gun show opperators could band together to rent the
building and then hold enough private gun shows to make it
profitable.

An agreement with computer shows to use the building when
gun shows are not using it would help pay most of the bills
and benifit both the computer industry and gun shows.

Again, the prime point here is to be free from liberal
censureship of sales and opperation.

Any lawyers on this board might consider this idea.

Getting gun shows into the private realm and away from
city/ public owned buildings seems the common sense way to go.

 

[Hal]

ernest2,
Good idea. I'm fairly certain that once these shows go to private property, the lawmakers are going to moan about the loss of revenue. I imagine they will fight back by requireing some outrageously overpriced permit to hold the show, and/or some obscure fire code requirement or liability insurance requirement. The city of Cuyahoga Falls, Ohio passed these very requirements to stop a show being held at an old empty toy store near me ( an empty Children's Palace). No problem, as the show moved to the Fairgounds. Then came the bug-a-boo about using the Fairgrounds, and the show moved to the local National Guard grounds. Once the fairgrounds people saw how many $$ were leaving the county, the shut up pretty quick. Cuyahoga Falls is now sitting there with a blank look on their face, several empty store fronts and watching a lot of revenue go somewhere else, cause the same codes/requirements that shut down the gun shows, shut down several other non-gun show events. Bottom line here is to head em off at the pass to prevent these requirements, then keep an eye on them so they can't reopen non-gun shows without permitting gun-shows to use the grounds.