Posted by Phil Lee (216.250.238.82) on October 01, 2000 at 06:06:
Gus Alzona alerted to this article in Friday Gazette Newspaper
Frosh: End gun shows at fairgrounds or lose bond
by Myra Mensh Patner, Staff Writer, Sep. 29, 2000
State Sen. Brian E. Frosh said Thursday he believes the Montgomery County fairgrounds should have been required to end gun shows before the state legislature approved a $400,000 bond bill in 1998 to pay for fairground renovations.
"If we're going to give them money, we can say no to gun shows," said Frosh (D-Dist 16) of Chevy Chase.
Frosh said he plans to determine if all the state money has been dispersed, and to try to stop it if it has not.
"I wish I had known about those shows," Frosh said. "I think a lot of people would have had second thoughts on the money if they had known."
Frosh said he learned of the shows through recent articles in The Gazette outlining the shows' history, efforts by County Councilman Blair G. Ewing to hold a public discussion on the issue, and plans by a local chapter of the Million Mom March to demonstrate at the next show in October.
If it is too late to stop the bond money, Frosh said he will write a letter with other state delegates to the Montgomery County Agricultural Center and Fairgrounds calling for an end to the shows.
The 59-acre fairgrounds in Gaithersburg, site for more than half a century of the popular county fair every August, is owned and operated by a private, nonprofit corporation. Decisions are made by a board of directors and staff.
James Clifford, an attorney representing the board, said Thursday that the board has no political agenda.
"We rent to many different types of organizations all year long. We're landlords,'' he said. "There are certainly as many people happy about gun shows as are unhappy with them.''
The important thing is that the fairgrounds generate money for scholarships, 4-H and other worthy causes, Clifford said. "We have to stand back and realize they are running a business.''
Frosh and Ewing (D-At large) of Silver Spring said the fact that more than $700,000 of state, federal and City of Gaithersburg money has flowed into the fairgrounds in the past two years to renovate its buildings means that the public has a right to have a say on its playing host to gun shows.
The shows are attracting attention from the newly created chapter of the Million Mom March, which plans to demonstrate against the next gun show at the fairgrounds Oct. 21 and 22.
"We object to the fact that tax dollars help support the Montgomery County fairgrounds while there are gun shows there," said Tierney O'Neil of Chevy Chase, who organized the Montgomery County chapter of the Million Mom March.
The chapter is one of about three dozen that have sprung up around the country since the Million Mom March in May, when about 800,000 people marched on the National Mall in Washington, D.C., to support tighter gun controls. Organizers created a national nonprofit group in San Francisco with the goal of continuing the momentum from May.
After learning about the shows, O'Neil raised the topic at the local chapter meeting Sunday.
The 25 people at the meeting voted unanimously to protest.
O'Neil said her group plans to offer Ewing and others a petition objecting to public spending on the fairgrounds as long gun shows take place there.
Some counties around the United States have moved to stop gun shows at fairgrounds. Last year, the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors passed an ordinance banning gun and ammunition sales on county-owned property.
After gun show promoters obtained an injunction that stopped the ordinance from taking effect, the fair operator -- a private group that leases the fairgrounds from Los Angeles County -- continued renting to several gun show organizers.
Later in the year, however, the Los Angeles fairground operator did not renew gun show contracts and the shows ended. The ordinance is being challenged in court.
Ewing's legislative aide attended Sunday's meeting in Chevy Chase as did Del. William A. Bronrott (D-Dist. 16) of Bethesda, a member of the organization.
It is Bronrott's cousin, Frank Krasner, who for a decade has been the promoter of the county's two gun shows at the fairgrounds. Krasner's company, Silverado Promotions, also holds gun shows at the Frederick and Howard county fairgrounds, as well as in Prince George's and Wicomico counties.
Krasner, who has scheduled a second Montgomery fairgrounds show for Jan. 6-7, features new and antique firearms, handguns, rifles, shotguns, military hardware, assault weapons, bows and arrows, knives, ammunition, holsters and other gun paraphernalia.