http://www.star-telegram.com/news/doc/1047/1:TOPSTORY/1:TOPSTORY0709100.html
Fort Worth City Council in bind on gun shows
By Ginger D. Richardson
Star-Telegram Staff Writer
FORT WORTH -- As Fort Worth prepares this week for its first public debate on whether gun shows should continue in city facilities, council members face a sobering reality: Any restrictive action they take could lead to a costly lawsuit.
That's because Texas, like many states, has laws that override any city's attempt to impose local gun regulations. And restricting the well-attended shows might result in Fort Worth running afoul of state statutes, officials said.
"It's a problem," said City Councilwoman Wendy Davis, who favors banning the shows from city facilities. "If you interpret that broadly, then we, as a city, would be illegally regulating the sale of arms."
Fort Worth is not alone in grappling with the issue.
In 1993, Houston officials passed an ordinance requiring everyone attending gun shows at city-owned facilities to sign a form disclosing the firearms in their possession, and to either remove the firing pins or install key-operated trigger locks on all firearms brought to the shows.
Promoters sued. And in January, the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled against the city, saying the ordinance was pre-empted by the Texas Local Government Code. The code blocks cities from regulating the "transfer, private ownership, keeping, transportation ... or registration of firearms."
Houston was ordered to pay $329,000 in damages and $54,442 in attorneys' fees and court costs.
Opinions on how the Houston lawsuit could affect any restrictive action Fort Worth might take vary as much as council members' opinions on the issue.
Assistant City Attorney Marcia Wise said last week that the case is the only one of its kind in the state, and it leaves the Texas law open to different interpretations.
"The one sure thing you can say is that the city of Fort Worth cannot do exactly what Houston did," Wise said. "But there are a lot of different theories in what's left. I would say that this serves as a guide to some land mines of what we could or couldn't do."
The council's Safety and Community Development Committee will open a hearing on the issue at 1 p.m. Tuesday at City Hall, 1000 Throckmorton St.
Several council members said last week that the state law might leave them only two options -- do nothing or ban the shows outright.
Two city leaders -- Davis and Mayor Pro Tem Ralph McCloud -- said they would favor banning the shows.
A couple of council members, including Chuck Silcox, the committee chairman, said they see no need to change the way gun shows are held.
"There are enough gun laws on the books today," Silcox said. "This is just a feel-good issue."
The city has booked 14 shows this year at its two meeting facilities -- the Fort Worth Convention Center and the Will Rogers complex. Last year, promoters held 17 shows, generating a little more than $98,000, Kirk Slaughter, the city's public events director, said.
Most council members said last week that they would be willing to increase restrictions on the show's promoters -- such as insisting that their dealers be federally licensed or that they conduct background checks on all buyers.
Individuals who sell guns infrequently from private collections aren't subject to federal licensing requirements, officials said.
Under federal law, only licensed dealers receive a personal identification number that allows them to access the FBI database to run the background check on a potential buyer.
It is that loophole that concerns council members.
"If it's a requirement when you purchase a gun from a gun store, then why isn't it reasonable to say that when you purchase a gun at a gun show that you require a background check -- no matter who is doing the selling or who is doing the buying?" asked City Councilman Jeff Wentworth.
But those are the sort of local controls that prompted gun show promoter Todd Bean to sue Houston and have landed municipalities across the nation in hot water.
"The action they are talking about taking, I believe it is illegal," said Bean, who holds several gun shows a year at the two Fort Worth facilities. "They are trying to tell people what to do with their personal property."
Bean said that the handful of private collectors who come to his shows generate a lot of interest.
"If you tell those folks they can't come, you lose the flavor of the old-time gun shows. It causes business to go away," he said. "I just don't understand this. For over 200 years, people have not needed permission from the government to peacefully assemble or to own firearm.
"That's all that gun shows are." But Andy Spafford, a staff attorney with the California-based Legal Community Against Violence, said that although Texas has one of the nation's more restrictive state laws, Fort Worth is not alone in trying to increase local gun controls.
"We had a groundswell here in California a few years ago," said Spafford, whose group advises municipalities that are trying to enact gun control measures. "But we are seeing it across the country now, and the debate is starting to change.
"Local folks are saying, `We're not interested in taking people's guns away, but what we are interested in doing is reducing the number of people who die.' "
Chicago, Los Angeles, San Francisco and West Palm Beach, Fla., are among cities that have enacted measures ranging from mandatory background checks on all gun show sales to making it illegal to possess a handgun within city limits.
Davis said Fort Worth should join that list.
"We need to be sending a message that we, as a city, will not be held hostage to these state and federal laws that have allowed these loopholes to exist," she said.
Ginger D. Richardson, (817) 390-7616
Send comments to grichardson@star-telegram.com
------------------
The New World Order has a Third Reich odor.
Fort Worth City Council in bind on gun shows
By Ginger D. Richardson
Star-Telegram Staff Writer
FORT WORTH -- As Fort Worth prepares this week for its first public debate on whether gun shows should continue in city facilities, council members face a sobering reality: Any restrictive action they take could lead to a costly lawsuit.
That's because Texas, like many states, has laws that override any city's attempt to impose local gun regulations. And restricting the well-attended shows might result in Fort Worth running afoul of state statutes, officials said.
"It's a problem," said City Councilwoman Wendy Davis, who favors banning the shows from city facilities. "If you interpret that broadly, then we, as a city, would be illegally regulating the sale of arms."
Fort Worth is not alone in grappling with the issue.
In 1993, Houston officials passed an ordinance requiring everyone attending gun shows at city-owned facilities to sign a form disclosing the firearms in their possession, and to either remove the firing pins or install key-operated trigger locks on all firearms brought to the shows.
Promoters sued. And in January, the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled against the city, saying the ordinance was pre-empted by the Texas Local Government Code. The code blocks cities from regulating the "transfer, private ownership, keeping, transportation ... or registration of firearms."
Houston was ordered to pay $329,000 in damages and $54,442 in attorneys' fees and court costs.
Opinions on how the Houston lawsuit could affect any restrictive action Fort Worth might take vary as much as council members' opinions on the issue.
Assistant City Attorney Marcia Wise said last week that the case is the only one of its kind in the state, and it leaves the Texas law open to different interpretations.
"The one sure thing you can say is that the city of Fort Worth cannot do exactly what Houston did," Wise said. "But there are a lot of different theories in what's left. I would say that this serves as a guide to some land mines of what we could or couldn't do."
The council's Safety and Community Development Committee will open a hearing on the issue at 1 p.m. Tuesday at City Hall, 1000 Throckmorton St.
Several council members said last week that the state law might leave them only two options -- do nothing or ban the shows outright.
Two city leaders -- Davis and Mayor Pro Tem Ralph McCloud -- said they would favor banning the shows.
A couple of council members, including Chuck Silcox, the committee chairman, said they see no need to change the way gun shows are held.
"There are enough gun laws on the books today," Silcox said. "This is just a feel-good issue."
The city has booked 14 shows this year at its two meeting facilities -- the Fort Worth Convention Center and the Will Rogers complex. Last year, promoters held 17 shows, generating a little more than $98,000, Kirk Slaughter, the city's public events director, said.
Most council members said last week that they would be willing to increase restrictions on the show's promoters -- such as insisting that their dealers be federally licensed or that they conduct background checks on all buyers.
Individuals who sell guns infrequently from private collections aren't subject to federal licensing requirements, officials said.
Under federal law, only licensed dealers receive a personal identification number that allows them to access the FBI database to run the background check on a potential buyer.
It is that loophole that concerns council members.
"If it's a requirement when you purchase a gun from a gun store, then why isn't it reasonable to say that when you purchase a gun at a gun show that you require a background check -- no matter who is doing the selling or who is doing the buying?" asked City Councilman Jeff Wentworth.
But those are the sort of local controls that prompted gun show promoter Todd Bean to sue Houston and have landed municipalities across the nation in hot water.
"The action they are talking about taking, I believe it is illegal," said Bean, who holds several gun shows a year at the two Fort Worth facilities. "They are trying to tell people what to do with their personal property."
Bean said that the handful of private collectors who come to his shows generate a lot of interest.
"If you tell those folks they can't come, you lose the flavor of the old-time gun shows. It causes business to go away," he said. "I just don't understand this. For over 200 years, people have not needed permission from the government to peacefully assemble or to own firearm.
"That's all that gun shows are." But Andy Spafford, a staff attorney with the California-based Legal Community Against Violence, said that although Texas has one of the nation's more restrictive state laws, Fort Worth is not alone in trying to increase local gun controls.
"We had a groundswell here in California a few years ago," said Spafford, whose group advises municipalities that are trying to enact gun control measures. "But we are seeing it across the country now, and the debate is starting to change.
"Local folks are saying, `We're not interested in taking people's guns away, but what we are interested in doing is reducing the number of people who die.' "
Chicago, Los Angeles, San Francisco and West Palm Beach, Fla., are among cities that have enacted measures ranging from mandatory background checks on all gun show sales to making it illegal to possess a handgun within city limits.
Davis said Fort Worth should join that list.
"We need to be sending a message that we, as a city, will not be held hostage to these state and federal laws that have allowed these loopholes to exist," she said.
Ginger D. Richardson, (817) 390-7616
Send comments to grichardson@star-telegram.com
------------------
The New World Order has a Third Reich odor.
even if only for the tired lie of, "We're not interested in taking people's guns away, but what we are interested in doing is reducing the number of people who die."