Contact: Sean Caine, 410-576-6357 (State Attorney General’s office)
David Weaver, 240-777-6530 (County Public Information)
For Immediate Release: August 22, 2001

Maryland Attorney General Joins
Montgomery County Efforts to Defend
Gun Show Legislation Against NRA Challenge

Maryland Attorney General J. Joseph Curran, Jr. today joined Montgomery County Executive Douglas M. Duncan in his efforts to defend the County’s recently enacted gun show legislation from legal attack, by filing an amicus brief in U.S District Court in Baltimore in support of the County’s new law. The measure, signed into law by Duncan on May 29, 2001, is being challenged by the National Rifle Association and Frank Krasner Enterprises, a gun show promotions company that has held shows twice a year at the Montgomery County Agricultural Center in Gaithersburg.

“Maryland's fairgrounds are places where families can spend the day with their children, not showrooms where products that potentially threaten the safety of children are sold," Attorney General Curran said.

“I feel strongly that restricting the display and sale of guns in places of public assembly is a critical step in protecting the safety of our citizens,” said Duncan. “I welcome the Attorney General’s assistance in our efforts to vigorously defend the County’s new gun show law.”

The County law prohibiting the sale, transfer, possession, or transporting of a gun or ammunition in or within 100 yards of a school, public library, or government-owned or operated recreation facility was recently amended. The amendment includes multipurpose exhibition facilities, such as fairgrounds, and prohibits County funds and resources from being used to support such facilities if they permit gun shows at which guns are displayed and sold.

An exception to the gun show restriction allows gun shows at a multipurpose exhibition facility only if the facility’s intended or primary use is firearms sport; or if the facility received no financial or in-kind support from the County.

On July 20, 2001, the federal court in Baltimore, in a lawsuit filed by Frank Krasner Enterprises, Ltd. and others against the County, will hold a hearing on Krasner’s request for a preliminary injunction restraining the County from applying the law to prohibit a gun show at the Montgomery County fairgrounds in October. The private facility receives financial and in-kind support from the County. Ultimately, the Court will be asked to decide the constitutionality of the recent amendments.

“We’re confident that we’re on solid legal ground with our gun show legislation, and that Montgomery County will prevail in this lawsuit,” said County Attorney Charles W. Thompson.