Costa Mesa Fairgrounds to Host Gun Show Despite Backlash

The Orange County Fair and Event Center in Costa Mesa, Calif., on March 1, 2021. (John Fredricks/The Epoch Times)

The Costa Mesa fairgrounds will host a gun show in late March despite fierce opposition from a California senator.

The Crossroads of the West Gun Show will run March 26 to 28, after the Orange County Fair and Event Center board of directors approved its return during a Feb. 25 meeting. Ashleigh Aitken was the only dissenting vote.

On Feb. 26, Sen. Dave Min (D-Irvine) called on the board to reverse its decision.

The board’s “decision to hold four gun shows this year—during the middle of a pandemic no less—is grossly irresponsible and endangers the lives of Orange County residents,'' said Min.

“The last thing we need in our communities is more gun shows, especially given the many reports of ghost guns and other unlicensed firearms being sold at gun shows,'' Min said. “As study after study shows, more guns lead to more gun violence.”

Min is currently pushing a Senate bill that would ban firearm and ammunition sales on public property throughout California, effectively ending gun shows.

He said the fairground’s decision “was wrong and it endangers our public safety.”

The Orange County Fairground Center board issued a statement saying Crossroads of the West has held gun shows at the facility for more than 30 years without incident.

“Gun shows remain legal in the state of California,” the statement says. “Crossroads of the West must follow all state and federal regulations that apply to the sale and trade of a firearm, including a 10-day cooling-off period and background checks. Many of the vendors at this event are family-owned and operated businesses.”

Orange County’s District 3 supervisor said in a previous interview with The Epoch Times that banning guns wasn’t the answer.

“There is to my mind very little legitimate science or study behind the idea that gun shows are in particular a source of some of the tragedies that we have seen around the country in the last few years,” Supervisor Don Wagner told The Epoch Times on Feb. 11. “I think it is just sort of a mindless ‘guns are bad and let’s ban them when we can’ approach.

“It also isn’t going to solve the problem because those who won’t obey the laws against shooting people aren’t going to obey the laws against having guns and those who will obey the laws can be counted on to responsibly use, store, and learn their weapons.”