Travis County won’t be hosting a gun show in its Exposition Center after this month, after county commissioners did not renew a lease for the controversial event.
“Controversial” in the sense that “liberals don’t like it.”
Saxet Gun Shows has been hosting the nearly-monthly show at the Expo Center since 2010 and had been negotiating a new contract for eight shows from March to January 2015, but got nowhere as county officials wanted the company to require background checks for all firearm sales. The company refused to require background checks for all transactions, and neither side has budged in the weeks of discussions, officials said.
(Hat tip: Dwight.)
Does this count as a violation of the preemption clause of Section 229 of the Texas local government code, which states:
(a) Notwithstanding any other law, including Section 43.002 of this code and Chapter 251, Agriculture Code, a municipality may not adopt regulations relating to:
(1) the transfer, private ownership, keeping, transportation, licensing, or registration of firearms, ammunition, or firearm supplies
I am not a lawyer, so I don’t want to hazard guess. It certainly seems less clear-cut than when they tried to ban gun shows outright. I did send off a tweet to Texas Attorney General (and 2014 gubernatorial favorite) Greg Abbott to ask his opinion…
Tags: Austin, Greg Abbott, gun shows, Guns, Texas, Travis County