Joey Garrison

USA Today Network - Tennessee

The Metro Board of Fair Commissioners isn't backing down from its controversial decision to eventually halt gun shows at Nashville's fairgrounds if gun operators don't accept new rules.

And as a result, the largest gun show operator at the city-owned fairgrounds says a lawsuit against Metro is likely.

Commissioners on Tuesday held their first board meeting since voting Dec. 1 to put a pause on gun shows at the fairgrounds until existing contracts with gun show operators are fulfilled.

They agreed Tuesday that this means RK Gun Shows and Bill Goodman's Gun and Knife Shows, the latter of which has rented space at Nashville's fairgrounds for 35 years, will continue to host all scheduled shows through this year.

But beyond 2016, the fair board expects gun show operators to agree to new safety terms — or else they will cease hosting gun shows altogether.

The board took no formal action Tuesday because they determined none was needed.

Metro halts gun shows at Nashville fairgrounds

Instead, Metro Department of Law Director Jon Cooper, the top attorney in Mayor Megan Barry's administration, advised the fair board that they acted lawfully in December when they voted 3-0, with one abstention, to stop hosting future gun shows until new safety measures are in place.

Cooper, unveiling his formal legal opinion for the first time, said no law requires Metro to hold gun shows at city-owned facilities such as the fairgrounds. He said legal concerns would only arise if the fair board adopted targeted regulations for gun shows that violate what is protected by state and federal law when it comes to guns.

"The state law pre-emption provisions pre-empt the regulation, sale and transfer of firearms, but do not require particular venues to host gun shows at all," Cooper said. "In fact there is a state law provision that allows local government to prohibit guns at government facilities.

"So, if the board further down the road decided that they did not reach an agreement — or did not want gun shows — we do not view that as a pre-emption issue."

Tim Rudd, an attorney and spokesman for David Goodman, operator of Bill Goodman's Gun and Knife Shows, said he disagreed with that legal opinion and argued Metro could be violating a host of laws if it stopped hosting gun shows next year.

"With regard to 2017 and going forward, we think there are a number of issues," Rudd said. "First of all, we have pre-emption issues. We have commercial free speech issues under the First Amendment. We have Second Amendment issues. We have right-of-access issues.

"We’re at a point where, eventually, if we can't reach an agreement — and there’s not a lot of movement for us here — it looks like litigation is inevitable,” he said.

Rudd called Goodman a “regular and faithful” tenant of the fairgrounds, and said more than 5,000 people had signed petitions in support of keeping gun shows at Nashville’s fairgrounds.

Fair board decision angers gun show attendees

The fair board took action in December to halt future gun shows after Goodman’s Gun and Knife Shows had been unwilling to adopt new rules to govern shows at the fairgrounds. Commissioners were influenced by testimony from an assistant Davidson County district attorney who cited three recent criminal cases that link guns purchased at Nashville’s fairgrounds to felons.

The board’s move was met with sharp criticism from gun rights activists, who argue the vote violated Second Amendment rights.

Councilman Steve Glover, who was on hand for Tuesday’s meeting, has argued that the fair board’s vote violated a 2011 Metro Charter amendment that voters passed via referendum that says existing fairgrounds activities are to remain at the site.

But in this case, Cooper said he believes that the charter only requires that expo center activities — not specifically gun shows — are to remain at the fairgrounds. Glover isn’t convinced.

“I disagree with Mr. Cooper,” Glover said. “My legal counsel has told me this is in clear violation of our Metro charter.”

Glover said he plans to file legislation aimed at blocking the fair board from scheduling non-gun-show events during weekends at Nashville’s expo center in 2017. The idea would be to keep them available for gun shows.

Fairgrounds gun shows to continue into next year

Given the controversy of the board's recent action, visitors at Tuesday meeting were required to go through a metal detector to enter — a first for fair board meetings. But despite the emotionally and politically charged topic, the meeting was attended by only a couple of dozen spectators.

Fair board members have floated a range of rules for gun show operators, including adding more police to make sure guns aren’t sold from the backs of vehicles, signs and security to ensure background checks are conducted during all gun sales, and perhaps even limits on what can be sold at shows.

But citing Metro’s legal position, fair commissioner Kenny Byrd — who has pushed some of these measures — on Tuesday acknowledged it might be problematic to adopt some of them because of pre-emption concerns. But he said halting gun shows would be allowed.

"Let's say I wanted to come in and stop the sale of 'cop-killing bullets,' at the fairgrounds.” Byrd said. “That would be pre-empted. You wouldn’t be able to do that.

"But what we are permitted to do is just not have gun shows at all," he said.

The future of gun shows at the fairgrounds became a focus of the board last year after Goodman pitched the idea of a “spacing policy” that he hoped would regulate when competitor gun show promoters could hold shows at the Nashville fairgrounds. Fair board members began reviewing Goodman’s gun shows and identified concerns about the events.

Under federal law, private sellers — who are assumed to be occasional sellers and hobbyists — aren’t required to give background checks but must not knowingly sell guns to prohibited purchasers.

Goodman has said his operation goes beyond what is required by making sure all vendors are federally licensed and, therefore, conduct background checks. But in addition to the district attorney’s testimony, fair board members have referenced a 2009 undercover investigation of Nashville’s fairgrounds led by New York City that reported numerous gun sales that lacked background checks.

Goodman has also pointed out that his shows regularly have representatives of the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives on hand.

Two ATF officials addressed the fair board on Tuesday, but they made it clear that the agency does not monitor or police gun shows when they are present during them. Instead, an ATF official said they only operate information booths and distribute education material at gun shows.

Reach Joey Garrison at 615-259-8236 and on Twitter @joeygarrison.