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City Council to discuss ban on gun shows on Tuesday

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The City Council is set to discuss banning gun shows from Glendale’s Civic Auditorium Tuesday night.

The Council has several options, which include canceling rental contracts with the Glendale Gun Show for upcoming events, banning all gun sales on city property outright or allowing the gun show to operate through the rest of the year and then ban the activity, according to a city report.

The next gun show at the Civic Auditorium is slated for March.

Last week, dozens of gun show advocates packed City Council chambers to try to prevent the proposed ban from going on Tuesday’s agenda, but to no avail. While Councilman Rafi Manoukian, who suggested the ban, said the gun supporters made a compelling argument, they didn’t change his mind.

With Mayor Frank Quintero on his side, Manoukian only needs one more council member’s support to bar the event.

Manoukian first floated the proposal in December, citing the Sandy Hook Elementary mass shooting that killed 26 people, including 20 first-graders in Newtown, Conn.

It’s not the first time a proposed ban on gun shows on civic property has been brought before the council. Manoukian unsuccessfully suggested it in 2006. The gun show has been at the Civic Auditorium since 1992.

Gun show advocates said last week that canceling their event, which they described as a family affair, will not curb gun violence. However, Manoukian said the city shouldn’t be in the business of profiting from gun sales, especially when it occurs near a school.

Glendale Community College is across the street from the Civic Auditorium.

Whether the city can even ban gun possession, sales or both on its property is open to some legal debate, according to a city report which cites legal opposition to Alameda County’s short-lived ban on gun shows at its fairgrounds.

In June, the Alameda case, which had made its way to the a federal court of appeals, was dismissed when the county agreed to open the fairgrounds to gun shows so long as promoters followed certain safety rules.

In 2012, three gun shows in Glendale generated about $55,000 in rental and parking revenue, or 13% of the Civic Auditorium’s total income that year.

The council meeting is set to begin at 6 p. m. at 613 E. Broadway.

Follow Brittany Levine on Google+ and on Twitter: @brittanylevine.

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