gunshow MMM protest this weekend

dZ

New member
The mommies are going to protest the Silverado Gunshow on Saturday morning the 21st of October.

If you are in the DC area and can make it to the Montgomery county fairgrounds please show up and make this a well attended show. http://www.silveradogunshow.com/

Please show up!
I have heard that most of the venues for gunshows in MD have accepted State money for repairs, now the State wants to limit the activities.

Here are some recent letters to the editor about the controversy:

<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><HR>One of your recent letters by Vicki King (“Gun shows out of place at county fairgrounds,” Sept. 27)
had some things to say about gun shows at the Montgomery County Fairgrounds, including a
re-statement of the popular fiction about so-called “assault weapons” and other nonexistent
weapons being sold at gun shows.

I understand where she is coming from. As a once rurally challenged individual, I too embraced all
sorts of stereotypes about gun owners and gun shows, all of which dissolved once I was exposed
to the reality of both.

Ignorance is a terrible thing.

Finally, Ms. King says she is disgusted with how her tax dollars are being indirectly spent to host
this gun show. She has my empathy. As someone who watches millions of tax dollars spent
annually on public schemes with which I personally take offense, I understand her disgust.

When she figures out a way to please all the people all the time, maybe she can let us in on the
secret.

Michael Koller, Germantown


I am glad that some people in Montgomery County are relieved that our elected officials and
members of the Million Mom March are watching over the safety of our children and our tax
dollars.

However, I am also a taxpayer, a mother and an independent voter, who also has a say in how
the county fairgrounds are used.

Montgomery County was once agricultural-based before it became development-based. That’s
why the county fair still has a produce and livestock competition.

But, with our farmland dwindling each year, this will soon become history.

People also hunted for sport and for food. In fact, some schools actually had a liberal leave policy
on the first day of hunting season because so many students and teachers would be absent due
to the need to hunt. When I say “need,” I mean that they had to hunt, to put food on the table.

Now that, too, is almost impossible due to development.

I say to the elected officials and the hysterical mothers, thanks but no thanks. I do not need you
to tell me what is best for my family and me. I raised my children to know the difference between
right and wrong, to choose their friends wisely, and to be tolerant of other people’s ideas and
values. They know that guns can maim and kill, but they know also that they are used for
collecting, protection and skeet and target shooting.

Gun shows have the same right to be at the fairgrounds as the computer shows do. We all know
that computers are educational tools that can also give our children access to pornography,
violence and pipe bomb instructions.

Darlene Merry Hamilton, Silver Spring


Something does not smell right in this gun show dispute.

Some state legislator supported a bill that contributed money for the renovation of the
fairgrounds, and a few weeks before a gun show he decides that the show should not take place.
Where is due process? Are gun shows illegal?

Where are the rights of the organizers and owners of the property who have planned this event
for months? These shows have taken place for years — why was there no condition attached to
the money the state contributed.

I am not a member of the NRA, nor do I support gun shows. But I do believe everyone has a right
to reasonable treatment under the law. Until gun shows are made illegal, let them take place. You
do not have to attend.

Rolf Tschudin, Kensington[/quote] http://www.gazette.net/letters/
 
Excellent.

Meet 'em head on. Even if just a few of you show up to counter-demonstrate, make sure that you tug on the reporter's coat and tell 'em you have an opposing view. Be forthright and represent your brethren well.

Rick
 
Municipalities urged to ban gun shows

by Myra Mensh Patner
Staff Writer

Oct. 18, 2000

Montgomery County Executive Douglas M. Duncan is calling on municipalities to
adopt a county law that would end local gun shows, targeting the ones held twice a
year at the county fairgrounds in Gaithersburg.

"A 1997 amendment [to the County Code] ... effectively bans gun shows and creates
'gun free zones' near public places," Duncan wrote in the letter sent Tuesday to all the
county's mayors. "Specifically, the law states that 'a person must not sell, transfer,
possess, or transport a handgun, rifle, or shotgun, or ammunition for these firearms,
in or within 100 yards of a place of public assembly.'"

Because the county fairgrounds are within the city limits of Gaithersburg, a
municipality, county law does not apply. Municipalities in Montgomery County are
self-governing; each must adopt the county's laws if they are to apply within the
municipality's borders.

Gun shows have taken place at the fairgrounds twice a year since 1990. The next gun
show is set for this weekend at the fairgrounds, with another scheduled for Jan. 6-7.

Gaithersburg Mayor Sidney Katz said late Tuesday he had not received Duncan's
letter, but will ask the city's attorney to review it when it arrives. He said the matter
could be brought before the City Council in November.

"We haven't had any public discussion of this topic yet," Katz said.

Duncan (D) said he decided to send the letter after the county attorney advised him
that the 1997 law was the way to end gun shows.

"We're asking to close a local gun show loophole," said David Weaver, Duncan's
spokesman.

Attorney James Clifford, who represents the Montgomery Agricultural Center and
Fairgrounds -- which is owned and operated by a private nonprofit foundation -- said
he has not seen a copy of the letter and would not comment on it.

Frank Krasner of Silverado Promotions, who organizes the gun shows at the
fairgrounds as well as others in Prince George's County, Howard County and
Frederick County, would not comment.

Krasner plans to have 200 tables of guns at this weekend's show.

Although he has organized gun shows at the county fairgrounds for a decade, the
shows were relatively uncontroversial until The Gazette highlighted them in recent
articles.

The County Council passed the Gun-Free Zones Law in 1997 after receiving
complaints from constituents about two gun shops. One was the Gentlemen Hunter
in Bethesda and the other was Article II Unlimited, which opened on University
Boulevard in Silver Spring, across the street from Blair High School.

The law did not affect either shop, and both are still in business.

Opponents of gun control have often derided the law as meaningless. In this month's
issue of a newsletter called "Tripwire: A Maryland Gun Rights Advocacy Newsletter,"
James Purtilo writes: "Now that the law has been in place for three years, it's
reasonable to ask: has it quelled the big emergency and saved our children ... here in
the third year of this gun control law's existence, Montgomery County has yet to write
any regulation showing how it should be implemented. Nobody has gotten around to
it."

Purtilo goes on to say: "No county authority has had any ability to enforce this 'critical
law' since it was put on the books. Gun controllers' true colors are shown when a
crisis can be resolved simply by passing the law without actually doing anything
about it."

But Weaver, Duncan's spokesman, said Duncan is confident that Gaithersburg and
other municipalities will adopt the Gun-Free Zones Law and end the gun shows for
good.

"He thinks it is insane that we work so hard to keep guns out of the hands of kids and
criminals on the one hand and then we have arms bazaars at the fairgrounds on the
other," Weaver said.

The fact that the Montgomery fairgrounds is privately owned and operated but has
received about $1 million since 1998 in state, county and City of Gaithersburg funds
for improvements has already prompted State Sens. Brian E. Frosh (D-Dist. 16) of
Bethesda and Leonard H. Teitelbaum (D-Dist. 19) of Silver Spring to ask the
fairgrounds to end the shows or face action from the General Assembly.

The American public often does not know about gun shows in its midst, said Kristen
Rand, executive director of the Violence Policy Center in Washington, D.C., a national
nonprofit group that studies violence in America and recommends legislation.

"It is not uncommon for shows held in places that would be disturbing to some
people to advertise mainly in gun-related publications. They're very able to keep it
quiet," said Rand, who published a 1996 national study of gun shows called "Gun
Shows in America: Tupperware Parties for Criminals."

When the wider community learns about the shows, she said, there is often instant
reaction against them. "Local politicians find out it's in their own back yard. It is not
abstract any more and they move to do something."
http://www.gazette.net/200042/montgomerycty/county/29606-1.html
 
i just laser printed a hundred picket signs for the rally

they are 11x17 & have several messages:

Ban Swimming pools too

15 children a day? Liar liar!

because i said so, is no way to run a republic

tyranny thy name is O'neil

time out! a million mommies can be wrong

i thought we voted on solutions in america

my mom does not lie to me

if y'all could, please bring some cardboard & sticks to afix these to
i will bring some supplies

doc Zox
 
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