(June 2001) Montgomery County Executive Doug Duncan has now signed into law the 'gun show bill' recently passed by the county council. This law implements a host of restrictions: It cuts off money for any group (public or private) that allows display or sale of guns on its property; any group that would allow this even ten years after having received public monies would be required to repay the funding; other events are prohibited from the premises at the same time as a gun show; promoters must get extensive criminal background checks to apply to hold a show; and more.
The practical and openly-declared objective of this law is to shut down the long-running Silverado Gunshows, as run by promoter Frank Krasner. Gunowners know Krasner as an upstanding businessman who runs a good show; but anti's know him as someone who enables us to share our culture among friends, indulge political speech and socialize with others about common interests in firearms. Antigunners can't stand that, and seek a final solution.
Where else but Montgomery County can councilmen claim "display of Nazi propaganda" (that does not exist at the Silverado show) justifies a gun law that has nothing to do with printed material, yet at the same time work hard to protect the First Amendment rights of hate groups? Who are the real national socialists in this picture?
From this Gazette-inspired antigun measure will grow a host of increasingly broad and expansive initiatives. We anticipate lawsuits will soon be filed against the county, of course, but we already hear rumblings that legislators may promote a similar law statewide, in order to give cover to the county action. Sponsors of the gun show bills from last session are inspired to ask whether they should press harder when the General Assembly reconvenes in January, raising the specter that we'd no longer see any gunshows in the state by next year at this time.
Why not see for yourself what the fuss is about? The next Silverado gun show is June 23-24 at the Frederick County Fairgrounds. We'll be there, and we hope to see you there too!
It's no wonder they want to shut gun shows down. During the last legislative session, Tripwire readers who are part of our Direct Action project distributed 5,000 fliers at one show alone, raising thousands of dollars for the Marylanders for the Preservation of Firearms Ownership Political Action Committee and inspiring just as many outraged phone calls to legislators over the proposed ammunition tax. That bill was one of the more decisively-trounced pieces of legislation to go down in a very long time, and it shows what we can do when we organize. It should telegraph what we can do in coming elections … to make proponents of last year's SB 211 pay for their gun control handiwork. They'll do anything to stop us … so we should stop at nothing to exercise our rights.