Guns are in the news a lot these days, which isn’t surprising given all the massacres lately being perpetrated by angry, racist, misogynist men. Fed up with it all, UC Irvine law professor/Democrat Dave Min, who’s running to unseat State Senator John Moorlach (R-Costa Mesa) in the 2020 election, said today that he wants a ban on future Crossroads of the West gun shows at the Orange County Fairgrounds & Event Center.
Here’s Min’s statement, which he sent out today:
The tragic cycle of gun violence that continued this past weekend has to end. I don’t see freedom when my children come home scared after active shooter drills at school, or when I arrive at the County Fair and am given free tickets to take my family to a gun show. Instead, I see dollar signs valued over the lives of the innocent. I see the deliberate perpetuation of a public health crisis that we can stop but refuse to.
Gun shows like those held by Crossroads of the West exist for the sole purpose of bringing firearms—many of these weapons of war—into our communities. This is putting the profits of gun manufacturers over the lives of real people. I am calling on the governing board of the OC County Fair to end its contract with Crossroads of the West and any other gun show marketers. The next life lost can’t possibly be worth a $278,000 contract. It is well past time to stand up for our children and our community.
I applaud recent efforts to end gun shows at state-owned fairgrounds in Del Mar and the San Francisco Bay Area. Similarly, in my first 100 days in office, I promise to author legislation for a ban on these gun shows at the OC Fair and Event Center once and for all. Additionally, I will continue to work with gun safety and violence prevention groups as well as responsible gun owners to advocate for real, on-the-ground action to end these senseless tragedies.
In February, Assembly member Todd Gloria (D-San Diego) introduced AB 893, which would prohibit the sale of guns and ammunition at the Del Mar fairgrounds. The bill passed the Assembly in April, but has been bottled up in the Senate Appropriations Committee since June.
If he’s serious, Min also might want to do more than just send out a press release because the next gun show at the OC Fairgrounds takes place Aug. 17-18.
Anthony Pignataro has been a journalist since 1996. He spent a dozen years as Editor of MauiTime, the last alt weekly in Hawaii. He also wrote three trashy novels about Maui, which were published by Event Horizon Press. But he got his start at OC Weekly, and returned to the paper in 2019 as a Staff Writer.
You are so fucking stupid I don’t know where to start. Guns ate tools…like a screw driver of a flash lite. Nothing more nothing less. Ass wipes like you think taking my constitutional right to own and buy guns away will somehow solve gun violence or mass shootings. Why don’t you take cars away from law abiding citizens because some drive drunk and kill people ? In the 1960 most anyone could buy a gun through the mail. No background check. No waiting period and there were no mass shootings. What say you, Einstein? You don’t have to be a dumb shit. Thank about it.
his picture needs a picture