Supreme Court asked to topple California’s ban on gun show sales

WASHINGTON (CN) — A gun show operator warned Wednesday that Supreme Court intervention is needed to prevent “the mind virus demonizing gun culture in the Ninth Circuit” from spreading to all legal doctrine.

B&L Productions, who runs popular gun shows called “Crossroads of the West” at county fairgrounds in San Diego and Orange County, California, filed an emergency appeal to block the Ninth Circuit’s ruling upholding the Golden State’s ban on gun show sales. B&L said the state, a federal judge in San Diego and the appeals court want to “demonize the ‘gun culture.’” B&L noted that it “reject[ed] this label as pejorative, but proudly embrace it as a legitimate business model.”

The showrunner claims California and the judges want to cut into constitutional doctrine and “the foundations of Anglo-American contract law, to prevent the people of the gun culture from congregating and conducting commerce on public land that is expressly set aside for congregating and engaging in commerce in lawful products.”

The “private sale exemption” lets individuals sell firearms to others without adhering to gun regulations, like background checks. Gun shows have earned the ire of Democratic politicians by operating as a forum for individual sales, utilizing the exemption to create a “gun show loophole.”

Under California’s strict gun laws, however, sellers must follow federal regulations. The state’s laws let buyers purchase a firearm at a gun show but added limits including a 10-day waiting period and background check. And any firearm purchased at the show must be picked up at a licensed retailer.

Golden State lawmakers then pushed for additional regulations limiting where guns could be sold. In 2022, Democratic state Senator Dave Min penned bills first prohibiting gun sales at the Del Mar Fairgrounds and then banning firearms sales on any state-owned property.

B&L claims California lawmakers objected to law-abiding gun culture, seeking to exclude gun shows from the public square out of animus.

“Although the challenged statutes do not expressly ‘ban’ gun shows, that is their stated goal,” B&L says, stating it had been unable to schedule any events at state-owned properties since the law took effect in 2023.

B&L sued the state, arguing the sales ban is unconstitutional. The gun show operator argued the law infringed commercial speech and censored expressive conduct.

U.S. District Judge Anthony Battaglia dismissed B&L’s challenge in March 2023, but U.S. District Judge Mark Holcomb temporarily blocked the law in October of the same year. The Ninth Circuit sided with California, finding that the sales ban restricted non-expressive conduct — contracting for the sale of firearms — so didn’t violate the First Amendment.

B&L told the Supreme Court that the ruling “flagrantly defied” the justices’ ruling in New York State Rifle & Pistol Association v. Bruen . The show operator asked to repeal the mandate and stay the court’s ruling until its appeal is resolved by the court.

The showrunner says thousands of Californians will be denied their constitutional rights until the appeal is resolved.

“To be sure, the state may have a public safety interest in preventing ‘gun violence,’” B&L wrote. “But enforcement of the challenged laws does not serve those interests in any meaningful (or appropriately tailored) way — particularly because the state can readily further such goals by enforcing existing laws directly regulating gun show events on public property as it has for decades.”

Follow @KelseyReichmann Follow @kelseyreichmann.bsky.social