California gun shows caught in the crossfire

mercurynews.com ^ | 19 March, 2012 | Howard Mintz

[marktwain]

Before the end of this year, Russell and Sallie Nordyke will set up shop for at least five gun shows at the Santa Clara County fairgrounds, providing a gathering spot for thousands of gun enthusiasts to buy and sell rifles, pistols and other weapons.

For the Glenn County couple, the South Bay is a small island amid a sea of hostility toward their TS Gun Shows. Bay Area counties from Alameda and Marin to San Mateo have enacted laws that forbid the sale or possession of guns on government property, effectively banning gun shows at some of the best spots to hold them.

The Nordykes believe those laws are unconstitutional -- and on Monday, a federal appeals court will once again take up their 12-year quest to strike down the regulations.

The case offers another crucial test of Second Amendment rights that could have repercussions for California's sweeping slate of state and local gun control laws.

Specifically, an 11-judge 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals panel is to hear arguments in the Nordykes' legal challenge to Alameda County's ordinance, which has outlawed gun shows at the fairgrounds in Pleasanton since 1999.

"It has impacted our lives tremendously," Sallie Nordyke said. "We used to be able to have gun shows in a lot of other places."

[marktwain]

This seems as much of a First Amendment issue as a Second Amendment one.

I guess the county could forbid Christians from using the fairgrounds as well.

[rktman]

Ninth Circus Court?! You mean the most overturned one in the country? No doubt which way they will rule and then on to the Supremes for their take on it. (No, not Diana Ross either.)

2nd item. Christians no. Muslimes yes. And don’t dare question that. Islamaphobe proclamation will be issued. As well as a fatwha.