PO Box 2343
Annapolis, MD 21404-2343

1-800-MLP-1776

www.md.lp.org

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

CONTACT: Beth Newman 301-588-3704

28 Jan 2001

GUN SHOW PROPOSAL MISSES THE MARK, TAXPAYERS VICTIMS OF FRIENDLY FIRE

The Montgomery County Council, mired in a cloud of ill-informed debate and emotional rhetoric, takes aim at gun shows but misses the point.

County Bill 2-01, introduced by Council Members Blair Ewing and Steven Silverman, proposes to prohibit the sale, transfer, possession, or transportation of certain weapons at or within 100 yards of certain exhibition facilities and prohibit County funding for any organization that allows the sale, transfer, possession, or transportation of certain firearms at certain exhibition facilities. The ultimate goal is to eliminate gun shows at fairgrounds.

While the Council and thus the press have been wrapped up in the emotional arguments of the gun-rights advocates and anti-gun-rights protestors, the real issue, taxpayers' dollars and who should decide how they are used, is being forgotten. The big question is, why are tax dollars being used to fund private enterprises, like fairgrounds, in the first place? And the bottom line is, if taxpayers' dollars are going to be used to fund such enterprises, then there should be no favoritism as to which legal events are to be conducted at these facilities.

Emotional spokespersons from the Million Mom March, on the anti-gun rights side, find it "morally objectionable" that gun shows are held at fairgrounds. How kind of them to impose their morals on the rest of the taxpayers in Montgomery County who have just as much of a say as they do in how those dollars are spent.

One could find objectionable any activity at events held year-round at the fairgrounds. Animal rights activists take offense at the treatment of animals at rodeos and other livestock-related events. Others protest the exhibition and sale of lewd material at computer shows and the like.

"If public funding weren't the issue, people would simply have to choose whether or not to attend these events, all legal, at privately-run facilities," said Steve Boone, Chair of the Libertarian Party of Maryland. "Instead, because public funding is used, we get bogged down in emotional debates by people with special interests who purport to speak for the rest of us."

This bill is the council's knee-jerk reaction to the disturbing protests of folks who would like to see even responsible sale, transfer, possession and use of firearms illegal. Specifically, the Million Mom March and their supporters, who cloak themselves in concern for "our children" not only mis-represent themselves as experts on gun control, but carry the highly arrogant mantle of knowing what's best for everyone's children. All this despite the paucity of evidence that the gun shows have ever caused anyone's children harm.

The Libertarian Party of Maryland asks the County Council to take a look at the real issue, that is, the use of taxpayers dollars to subsidize any privately run enterprise, regardless of whose pet issue is at stake. Let's not play favorites among voters or events, but treat every vote and every tax dollar as precious. If we had our way, the tax dollars used to fund fairgrounds would be returned to the voters to use as each sees fit, and the fairgrounds would be able to privately host any event they choose.

The Libertarian Party of Maryland is the third largest political party in Maryland. We are dedicated to the reduction of government interference in individual liberty. We hold that all individuals have the right to exercise sole dominion over their own lives, and have the right to live in whatever manner they choose, so long as they do not forcibly interfere with the equal right of others to live in whatever manner they choose.