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http://www.townhall.com/columnists/michellemalkin/mm20010126.shtml

Michelle Malkin (archive)
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January 26, 2001

Gun shows under fire

Here’s the thing about the Bill of Rights: It isn’t an a la carte menu. You can’t just pick
and choose. But that’s exactly what public officials in my neighborhood want to do in their
brazenly unconstitutional attempt to ban gun shows. The Montgomery County (Md.) Council
introduced a bill this week to deny public funding to “any organization that allows the display
and sale of guns” on its property. It would also expand a current county law that mandates
gun-free zones within 100 yards of a “place of public assembly” by adding fairgrounds,
conference centers and exhibition halls to the areas where gun displays and sales are
forbidden. This effort follows a nationwide assault launched in Los Angeles, which moved to ban
gun shows two years ago.

The dead aim of my local lawmakers is to shut down Maryland’s only gun show operator, Silverado
Promotions, which has held events at a local fairgrounds for a decade without incident. Council
president Blair Ewing claims the bill is “designed to reduce easy availability of guns” and
prevent crime. But Maryland has among the most stringent gun control laws in the country, and
the so-called “gun-show loophole” has already been closed here.

It is simply not true, as the gun-control lobby claims, that gun shows foster more gun-related
crime. A U.S. Bureau of Justice Statistics report on federal firearms offenders released last
year reported that a mere 1.7 percent of crime guns are acquired at gun shows. Frank Krasner,
owner of Silverado Promotions, adds that his shows are heavily policed — and attended by many
cops who are hobbyists and collectors themselves. “The only complaint I’ve ever gotten from
police is that there aren’t enough parking spaces for their cars,” Krasner told me.

In addition to strict observance of background checks and waiting periods, Krasner enforces a
plethora of safety rules: all incoming firearms are inspected, disabled and displayed under net
or glass; no handguns are delivered to the buyer at the show; and all dealers must publicly
display their licenses.

Gun show bans aren’t about promoting safety. They’re about cracking down on the free speech and
free assembly of law-abiding citizens who have a passion for exercising their Second Amendment
rights. At gun shows across the country, hunters shop for equipment, buy books and swap tips.
Families browse historical exhibits, antiques, collectibles and war memorabilia. And yes,
people from all walks of life come to buy guns for recreation and self-defense. “There’s a lot
of education and political activity that goes on at our shows,” Krasner notes. “The real
problem these gun bigots have is not with crime, but with the lawful civilian ownership of
firearms.”

Krasner is considering litigation if the proposal passes. The law is on his side. Courts from
California to Florida have held that gun-show transactions involve constitutionally protected
commercial speech. “(S)ome type of speech is necessarily involved in the sale of any gun. A gun
may not be sold in silence, without any exchange of verbal communication whatsoever,” noted a
federal appeals court in California upon overturning a Santa Clara gun show ban strictly on
First Amendment grounds. The court criticized the gun show ban as an “inept response to
pressure by residents who strongly support the cause of gun control.” Inept, discriminatory,
and illegal.

Michael Wright, a Los Angeles attorney who represents the Great Western Gun Show (which is
currently challenging a 1999 county gun show ban), told me he believes the Montgomery County,
Md., ban won’t stand up in court either. “Banning the mere display of guns gets you right down
free speech alley. If you ban the display of arms, you ban speech. The proposal is almost
certainly a First Amendment violation.”

This may be hard for gun-grabbers to swallow, but the First Amendment applies to Second
Amendment advocates, too. Government officials who are pursuing gun show bans nationwide may be
winning in the court of public opinion. But in the court of law, thanks to our Founders, the
basic constitutional rights of gun show operators and attendees are bulletproof.