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California Supreme Court Upholds Ban on Gun Shows
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California Supreme Court Upholds Ban on Gun Shows
NewsMax.com Wires
Tuesday, April 23, 2002
SAN FRANCISCO - Cities and counties are within their rights to ban gun shows from fairgrounds and other "public" property, the California Supreme Court ruled Monday.
The court voted 6-1 to uphold ordinances in Los Angeles and Alameda counties that prohibit gun shows and the sale of firearms at swap meets held on county-owned lands, on the grounds that the county was not obligated to facilitate gun sales.
"Does state law compel counties to allow their property to be used for gun shows at which guns and ammunition are sold? We conclude that it does not," the court said in its opinion.
The case arose from a 1999 ordinance passed in Los Angeles County that ended a 22-year run by Great Western Shows, a company that had put on three gun shows a year at the county fairgrounds in Pomona. The county's gun crime rate was cited in the ordinance as the reason for the ban.
Great Western objected that the ordinance violated its right to free commercial speech under the First Amendment. But the court said the county was within its rights to take steps to cut off a source of weapons.
"We perceive nothing in state law that ... forbids a county from withdrawing its property from use as a venue for gun show sales based on its own calculation of the costs and benefits of permitting such use," the court said.
Great Western also attacked the ordinance on technical grounds. Because the county had a lease agreement with a private company, Los Angeles County Fair Association, to manage the fairgrounds, it had given up its rights to impose restrictions on activities at the property that were more severe than state laws, Great Western said.
The court, however, found that the lease agreement required Fair Association to comply with laws that applied to the fairgrounds and that the ordinance was not violating the rights of the public as a whole.
"By enacting an ordinance that seeks to regulate the use of its own property, but not the conduct generally of the citizens of Pomona, the county is not exercising regulatory jurisdiction that is coextensive with Pomona," the opinion said.
The lone dissenter, Associate Justice Janice Brown, disagreed with the majority finding that the county still had control over what events took place at the fairgrounds. She contended that under the lease, the county should be considered a property owner that was improperly using its regulatory power to exert control over legal events at the fairgrounds.
"Depending on the terms of the lease, the county may have some control over the uses to which its tenant puts the property, or it may be able to amend its lease to prohibit firearm sales," Brown wrote. "But the county must act in its capacity as a property owner. To the extent the county has contractually relinquished its property rights, it may not use its regulatory authority to retain control."
Copyright 2002 by United Press International.
All rights reserved. http://www.newsmax.com/archives/articles/2002/4/22/181622.shtml
"If cowardly and dishonorable men sometimes shoot unarmed men with army pistols or guns, the evil must be prevented by the penitentiary and gallows, and not by a general deprivation of a constitutional privilege." - Arkansas Supreme Court, 1878
NewsMax.com Wires
Tuesday, April 23, 2002
SAN FRANCISCO - Cities and counties are within their rights to ban gun shows from fairgrounds and other "public" property, the California Supreme Court ruled Monday.
The court voted 6-1 to uphold ordinances in Los Angeles and Alameda counties that prohibit gun shows and the sale of firearms at swap meets held on county-owned lands, on the grounds that the county was not obligated to facilitate gun sales.
"Does state law compel counties to allow their property to be used for gun shows at which guns and ammunition are sold? We conclude that it does not," the court said in its opinion.
The case arose from a 1999 ordinance passed in Los Angeles County that ended a 22-year run by Great Western Shows, a company that had put on three gun shows a year at the county fairgrounds in Pomona. The county's gun crime rate was cited in the ordinance as the reason for the ban.
Great Western objected that the ordinance violated its right to free commercial speech under the First Amendment. But the court said the county was within its rights to take steps to cut off a source of weapons.
"We perceive nothing in state law that ... forbids a county from withdrawing its property from use as a venue for gun show sales based on its own calculation of the costs and benefits of permitting such use," the court said.
Great Western also attacked the ordinance on technical grounds. Because the county had a lease agreement with a private company, Los Angeles County Fair Association, to manage the fairgrounds, it had given up its rights to impose restrictions on activities at the property that were more severe than state laws, Great Western said.
The court, however, found that the lease agreement required Fair Association to comply with laws that applied to the fairgrounds and that the ordinance was not violating the rights of the public as a whole.
"By enacting an ordinance that seeks to regulate the use of its own property, but not the conduct generally of the citizens of Pomona, the county is not exercising regulatory jurisdiction that is coextensive with Pomona," the opinion said.
The lone dissenter, Associate Justice Janice Brown, disagreed with the majority finding that the county still had control over what events took place at the fairgrounds. She contended that under the lease, the county should be considered a property owner that was improperly using its regulatory power to exert control over legal events at the fairgrounds.
"Depending on the terms of the lease, the county may have some control over the uses to which its tenant puts the property, or it may be able to amend its lease to prohibit firearm sales," Brown wrote. "But the county must act in its capacity as a property owner. To the extent the county has contractually relinquished its property rights, it may not use its regulatory authority to retain control."
Copyright 2002 by United Press International.
All rights reserved. http://www.newsmax.com/archives/articles/2002/4/22/181622.shtml
"If cowardly and dishonorable men sometimes shoot unarmed men with army pistols or guns, the evil must be prevented by the penitentiary and gallows, and not by a general deprivation of a constitutional privilege." - Arkansas Supreme Court, 1878
Comments
Decision Expected To Set Off Avalanche Of Ordinances
Posted: 3:01 p.m. EDT April 22, 2002
Updated: 7:35 p.m. EDT April 22, 2002
SAN FRANCISCO -- Counties and cities in California may ban gun shows on their fairgrounds and other government properties, the state Supreme Court ruled Monday.
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The 6-1 decision upholds the hotly contested banning of weapons at flea markets in Los Angeles and Alameda counties. The ordinances were passed there in 1999 among concerns that gun shows tarred the image of the counties and promoted violence.
The decision is expected to set off an avalanche of similar ordinances across the state. In briefs filed to the court, representatives from at least 20 cities and counties urged the justices to grant them such powers.
California's justices have never ruled on whether statewide regulation of gun sales leaves room for stronger local regulations. Until Monday, the high court has left those decisions for the lower courts to decide.
A state appeals court overturned San Francisco's 1982 ban on handgun possession, saying that cities and counties cannot write such laws. But in 1998, another appeals court upheld West Hollywood's ban on cheap handguns known as Saturday Night Specials, saying that a city could outlaw a gun that was legal in other parts of the state.
But on Monday, the justices entered the politically charged debate, ruling in two cases that local governments are free to outlaw gun shows that commonly occur on county fairgrounds.
"Alameda County has the authority to prohibit the operation of gun shows held on its property," Justice Carlos R. Moreno wrote in his first majority opinion since taking office in October.
In sharp dissent, Justice Janice Rogers Brown said that such an initiative by a local government "exceeds its regulatory authority."
The gun industry argued to the seven justices that local governments are powerless to regulate the industry because the Legislature has authorized gun shows on public property. The industry said the local laws were pre-empted by state rules.
The cases reached the high court after a federal appeals court, unsure of how to interpret California law, asked California's justices to intervene.
The decisions do not reach into whether local governments can ban gun sales on private property. The cases only involve whether the bans can occur on public government-owned property.
The ruling stems from a lawsuit filed by Great Western Shows Inc. after county supervisors approved the ordinance on a 3-2 vote in September 1999.
The measure prevents Great Western from using the county-owned Fairplex in Pomona, a venue the organization had rented four times a year for 22 years.
The county fair reportedly made about a $600,000 a year from the show, which was moved to Las Vegas in 2000. About 40,000 people attended the company's last show at the fairgrounds in 1999.
The ruling does not end the county's legal dispute with Great Western Shows, because the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals referred the case back to the district court to decide on free speech and equal protection issues.
Jeff Schenkel, of Great Western Shows, predicted the company would win at the federal court level and still has plans to bring the show back to the Fairplex.
"The customers want it, the 2,000 vendors who participate in the show each year want it," he said, adding that the company held shows in Pomona for years "without a serious incident on the fairgrounds or related to the show."
There are 2,500 licensed firearms dealers in California. The same 10-day waiting period for persons to purchase weapons at a gun store applies to weapons purchased at California's gun shows. Only licensed firearm dealers can sell weapons in the state and convicted felons are banned from buying them.
Copyright 2002 by TheSanDiegoChannel.com. The Associated Press contributed to this report. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
http://www.thesandiegochannel.com/sh/news/california/stories/news-california-141155520020422-140431.html
"If cowardly and dishonorable men sometimes shoot unarmed men with army pistols or guns, the evil must be prevented by the penitentiary and gallows, and not by a general deprivation of a constitutional privilege." - Arkansas Supreme Court, 1878