Seeking yet another way to target the firearms industry, anti-gun politicians have again begun targeting gun shows.
The states of California and New Mexico, both of which have poor track records when it comes to protecting your constitutional rights, are now moving on this front.
“After months of [New Mexico gun show] cancellations ostensibly due to COVID-related issues, the gun-control boom was finally lowered on promoters of these legal events where honest citizens have lawfully exercised their Second Amendment right to purchase and own firearms for decades. Gun shows are no longer welcome on [New Mexico] state property, nor are their customers, their rights, and the boost they provide to the state and local economy,” reported the NRA Institute for Legislative Action (ILA).
As it could find no public record that state agencies were even considering this ban, NRA-ILA credited the decision to the person who ultimately controls all state agencies—noted anti-gun advocate Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham (D). “[S]he appears to have wildly wielded her executive power to use a state agency [New Mexico State Fair Commission] to target gun owners and throw a pre-election year bone to radical gun control activists,” said NRA-ILA.
And in California, Gov. Newsom and the anti-gun politicians within the California legislature are considering a similar ban.
That California bill, S.B. 264, would ban the sale of firearms, firearm parts, and ammunition on state or county property in the Golden State, as originally introduced. The bill has since been gradually watered down; first to just impact state property, and now to only affect any state or county properties “owned, leased, or otherwise occupied or operated” within Orange County.
Besides this anti-Second Amendment proposed legislation, California’s Solano County Fairgrounds Board recently voted to end gun shows at the fairgrounds. For over two decades, the Code of the West and other promoters held shows in Vallejo. Code of the West shows were already scheduled for October and December, and Solano County Fairgrounds Board did say: “At the advice of counsel, the board of directors will honor [the] signed contacts.”
What could have made the board consider not doing so?
“This [violent crime] is a crisis in Vallejo and now is the time to take action. I have learned that the gun shows sell out of ammunition, the first thing. To me, that is really concerning,” said Solano County Fairgrounds Vice President Kari Birdseye.
Sadly, anti-Second Amendment groups and politicians are increasingly targeting more gun shows. Often, the rationale given for restricting—or outright banning—these legal shows is the all-encompassing cry of an “epidemic of gun violence,” which is a politically manufactured phrase. Firearms, of course, are simply tools of freedom, and they most certainly are not a disease, as many of these same lawmakers will claim.
The thing is, criminals rarely acquire firearms through gun shows! Again and again, research shows that the vast majority of ill-gotten firearms get into the wrong hands via black market sales or thefts.
John Lott, president of the Crime Prevention Research Center, “Multiple surveys done of criminals find that virtually no criminals obtain their guns from gun shows. In 1991 and 1997, only 0.6% and 0.7% of criminals obtained guns from gun shows. [A] 2016 survey conducted during the Obama administration found that number was still only 0.8%.”
Of course, all of this is of no concern to those who hate the Second Amendment and the legitimate, legally run businesses that support our constitutional right to keep and bear arms.
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