“It’s not about who gets the largest turnout, It’s about the law, and what our government officials are willing to do to protect us. And it’s about the epidemic of gun violence. If it were not for these mass killings, we’d be having a very different conversation.” That’s the, er, argument Rose Ann Sharp (above right) of NeverAgainCA made recently before the board that oversees the Del Mar fairgrounds, site of heavily attended four-times-a-year Crossroads of the West gun shows that have been held at the fairgrounds for the last 28 years.
Sharp and her group would like nothing better than to put an end to the gun shows. Why? They won’t say it, but one middle-schooler did.
“We need to take action to stop the proliferation and glorification” of guns, said Zak McHale, a North County seventh-grader.
For Sharp and her group, it’s all about de-normalizing and other-ing guns and gun owners. Something California’s been working hard at for a couple of decades now. The fact that thousands of people come to the Del Mar Fairgrounds gun shows and enjoy themselves every year cuts no ice with her or her anti-gun scolds.
But OMG! What about the dreaded gun show loophole? These events are really just unregulated gun bazaars where felons and God-knows-who can just walk up and leave with deadly weapons of war!
Only they can’t. As the San Diego Union Tribune article points out . . .
Guns can be purchased at the show, but state law requires background checks and a waiting period. No one can legally buy a gun at the show and take it home the same day.
That’s right. Among the dozens of new restrictions that California has imposed over the years on its legally overburdened citizens who wish to exercise their Second Amendment rights are universal background checks and a 10-day waiting period on all firearms purchases. So no one will be walking out of a Del Mar County gun show with a firearm he or she bought that day.
That being the case, what’s bothering Sharp and her hoplophobic friends? That’s a rhetorical question.
Three cities in the county (which also includes San Diego) have asked the fairgrounds board to ban gun show. They are the cities of Del Mar, Solana Beach and Encinitas.
Cities that voted to ban the show are revealing their prejudice, said Michael Schwartz, executive director of the political group San Diego County Gun Owners.
“This is the beginning of a path of intolerance that I hope you’ll ignore,” Schwartz said, adding that the 1,000 members of his group will continue to write letters and speak in support of the gun show.
Schwartz and other gun right supporters reportedly outnumbered opponents at the board meeting by four to one.
Sharp’s group picketed outside the Crossroads show at the fairgrounds in March and plans to return at the next show in May.
“We want a cultural shift,” said Kelly Harless of Solana Beach, another member of the group. “Do the noble thing and stop these shows.”
Because they’re icky. And only icky people go to guns shows. That shift Harless wants to happen is really just an act of cultural hygiene, needed to show that those people aren’t welcome in and won’t be accommodated by Del Mar.
Here’s a familiar refrain . . .
Del Mar resident Pam Slater-Price, a former member of the county Board of Supervisors, said she fully supports Second Amendment rights, but that the public fairgrounds is not “an appropriate venue” for the gun show.
After three hours of public comment, the board said they’d like to do their own analysis of the shows, their policies and economics. And they want to find out what other county boards around the state have done.
Eight of the nine board members are Democrats appointed by Gov. Jerry Brown.
One, Russ Penniman, is a Republican first appointed by Gov. Gray Davis in 2003 and since then reappointed by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, and then by Brown.
Want to predict how the board is likely to decide the issue?
The mentality of a five-year-old is what is determining the exercise of our rights and freedoms. Communism, here we come!
Fucking Bolsheviks.
“Because they’re icky. And only icky people go to guns shows. ”
Pretty much sums it up. Nice people don’t go to, or live in, places where “icky people” go and live. Thus, no need for guns for self-protection. It is settled science that crime and evil do not venture outside their proper place. Never happens.
Besides….
Police, and stuff.
What is the ratio of mass shootings at gun shows compared to gun free zones? We should have gun shows on every street corner, public school, every where there is liberal bias in the air.
I can just stand on the corner with no shirt on. Blam! Free gun show.
Lol.
Ouch.
XD
I could do same and they’d all run away screaming” Eeeeew Never Again CA”
‘“We need to take action to stop the proliferation and glorification” of guns, said Zak McHale, a North County seventh-grader.’
How much do you want to bet that those words were fed to the kid? You really expect me to believe that with the current level of education in this country that a 7th grade knows words like “proliferation” and “glorification”?
Yeah, I call BS on that.
Spot on.
There is no way a seventh grader came up with that.
Howdy Doody Puppet.
Big words for a kid that doesn’t know the Sun is in our solar system.
Agreed. The upper middle class white high schoolers in Parkland needed to be fed their talking points word for word. No way this middle school kid came up with that on his own.
So, that’s the chick from “The Red Ribbon”?
Somehow, I thought she’d be younger…
Do the noble thing stop gun shows. I guess these people for got about the second amendment.
I guess they forgot about the right to bear arms.
I guess they forgot that the bad guys will cause so much crime when we as a people are disarmed.
What will the do to protect their loved ones if a hoard of bad guys start breaking in homes and the local cops are out trying to protect someone on the other side of town doing a earthquake or something worse.
Do you remember the storm of 2000 back south people were killing and robbing those who was unable to protect themselves and their property.
I’ve see such things and it better to be armed and not to be unarmed.
These people should be ashamed of themselves because it can happen and it will happen to one of their loved one if we are unarmed as a nation.
There are a lot of very bad people out there look at the rapist they just arrested two days ago after 40 years on the run if someone would have had a gun to protect themselves this guy would be dead.
So don’t say firearms are a bad thing, no people are the bad thing that use firearms in the wrong way.
…and the local cops are … on the other side of town doing a earthquake or something worse.”
Let’s not exaggerate. Some of our local cops are fat, but not as much that they would cause an earthquake.
Or something worse. 😁
“Do the head in the sand victimized coward thing and stop these shows.”
Fixed it for ya…
Ironic that they’d attempt to use the term noble… But that kind of conflicted emoting mindset would explained the “I just shart myself” look on her face. Must be hard going through life like that…
Post “Gun Free Zone” signs in front of each of the Board members’ places of domicile. According to the anti-Second Amendment proponents, the bad guys will also lay down their arms and not perpetuate any crimes wherever the individual is unable to protect themselves and their families, right?
Wake me up when the 2nd American Civil War has started…….
“Wake me up when the 2nd American Civil War has started…….”
Actually, the next civil war will be the third.
Depends on how one defines a ‘civil war’.
Nothing civil about it.
The revolution of 1776 was not “colonists vs. england”. It was some colonists vs. England and loyal colonists (colonists vs colonists – civil war)
The revolution of 1861 was plainly a civil war
Thus, a new shooting war between Americans would be a third civil war.
We’re still at the soap box and jury box stage. If that fails, you will hear it. Let’s make sure it won’t fail.
Well, it’s their grounds, they can decide to kill off a large source of income if they want to. Hopefully that means they will swing by my part of the country more often.
As Captain Jack Sparrow said:
“Your funeral.”
Del Mar is imo the most beautiful place in CA. Hit up their car shows coincidentally held in the aforementioned fair grounds for a great time. Then drive up to San Diego’s gas lamp for some late night fun.
Just down the coast from her, SEALs are training using firearms to protect her freedom to advocate taking ours away.
And just inland from her is the largest retail GLOCK store in the world.
The crossroads gun shows? Wouldn’t matter to us. California is the one state that you can’t buy a gun at a gun show. On top of that, there’s also the entrance and parking fees. By the time you’ve made it to the door, you’re out $30 in time and money. The gun shows are just tazers, beef jerky, and some very overpriced ammo. Actually, everything is overpriced because they charge the vendors a lot to set up a table and you can’t haggle on anything. Unless you were the fifth person through the door, any good deals and sales have already been sold.
To clarify: It’s not “Del Mar County” it’s San Diego County.
Like The Crossroads of The West gun show, the San Diego County Fair, which until recently was known as the Del Mar Fair, is held at the Del Mar Fairgrounds, in Del Mar, in San Diego County. A bit confusing, to be fair.
Anyway, that whole section of the coast is full of rich dingbat NIMBYs who are obsessed with creating a perfectly-manicured estate for multi-millionaires without any “deplorables” to spoil their ocean view, so I’m not surprised.
When the nearby community of Carmel Valley was built they successfully lobbied to prevent any bus stops from being built, to keep out the riff raff. They finally had to relent, though, when their housekeepers had no way of getting to work . . .
The board is in a bind, though, because the Fairgrounds have been on shaky financial ground for years and the gun show is one of the few big events held there besidesign the county fair and horse racing.
There is NO Del Mar County in California. Get your facts straight.
Eight of the nine board members are Democrats appointed by Gov. Jerry Brown.
An enlightened group if there ever was one.
When guns are banned, do they think that one can not acquire guns for the drug dealers or others down the block (black market)? The anti-gun mafia is incredibly ignorant about gun shows and firearms and psychologically terrified of the same.
It is all about feelz, virtue signaling and keeping “icky” people away from their precious county fair grounds.
The last time I went to a gun show, there were FFLs there who would hold the gun for 10 days and do the background check–for $75 (and I live in a small city in the far north). It was the same in San Francisco. I bet that it is at least $100 in Del Mar, and that may or may not include the DROS (another $25). Thanks, but no thanks. You can’t get any deals on guns when the price is up a C-note before you start.
P.S.: Alameda tried this, got sued, and finally settled 9 years later in front of a rather irritated 9th Circuit Panel by allowing the show as long as the guns were tethered to the table. The cases (yes, caseS) are Nordyke, in both federal and state court.
I’d be embarrassed showing my gun in public. showing of Gocks should be held in San Fran
Everything else aside, that’s a great photo at the top.
I have several ready responses, depending on how polite I’m feeling at the moment:
1. “Demonizing law abiding gun owners and promoting restrictions on gun ownership protects rapists and other criminals. Why are you pro-rape?”
2. Gun safety? I’m all for gun safety! We should start teaching safe handling of firearms as soon as kids are ready. And, bring marksmanship teams back to high schools like we had in the 60’s. Kids would be much safer around guns if we did.
3. Common sense gun laws? I’m totally with you. Let’s start with nationwide reciprocity. The current patchwork of laws is the opposite of common sense.
Tell a big truth often enough and people will start to believe it. When we’re feeling polite, we should take back the language. Push the antis out from behind their misuse of words. Even if they immediate jump to , “You’ll just end up shooting yourself”, or, “The bad guy will just take your gun away”, you’ve won. They cannot un-hear (or un-read) the truth you’ve just bombed them with. Even if you can’t win over the truly unhinged, you will influence the honestly undecided.
If you’re not feeling polite, there’s always #4. “You’re an idiot. Bugger off.” There’s a big truth in there, too.
Those of anti gun stripe, like those of pro gun stripe are entitled to their opinions. As the late Senator Moynihan of New York State offered, they are not entitled to their own facts. The anti gunners might get more of a hearing if they quit lying, lying seemingly being their stock and trade. By the way, respecting the drivel from the middle school student, who fed him the line he spouted is a reasonable question. As for the lady mentioned, before mounting her soapbox, she should check the relevant, existing law, something she neglected to do, one wonders as to exactly why?