| FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE - April 5, 2016 CONTACT – Timothy Rudd (937) 396-0089
Bill Goodman’s Gun &
Knife Show And
The Tennessee Firearms
Association Sue Metro Nashville
NASHVILLE,
TN: Since the mid-seventies, Bill Goodman’s Gun & Knife Show has been a
monthly fixture at the fairgrounds in Nashville. Today, in response to the
Metro Nashville Fair Board’s decision to ban gun shows from the Fairgrounds, the
company, along with the Tennessee Firearms Association, filed a declaratory judgment
action against Metro Nashville to ensure that it remains a fixture at the
Fairgrounds into the foreseeable future.
Citing a Tennessee law
preempting local regulation of firearm sales as well as the Metro Nashville
Charter, the lawsuit alleges that the Fair Board stepped outside of its
authority in choosing to single out gun shows and exclude them from the
Nashville Fairgrounds. “It is not just a
case of the Fair Board pushing the limits of its authority, by trying to put an
end to gun shows at the Fairgrounds -- shows that have been held at that
location for years -- the Fair Board is directly contravening the express
language of the Metro Nashville Charter that requires that activities that were
held as of December 2010 be continued,” stated Dave Goodman, the company’s
president. Goodman had hoped litigation
could be avoided, noting that “we have reached out to the Fair Board, even
offering written responses to their list of demands and coming to Nashville to
discuss the issues at the February meeting of the Fair Board. But the lines of communication have to run
both ways, and the Fair Board has made up its mind.”
Goodman is pleased that the
Tennessee Firearms Association has chosen to join with him in the effort to
keep gun shows at the Fairgrounds. “We want to stay at the Fairgrounds for
years to come, and the law-abiding gun owners of Middle Tennessee want us to as
well. When the Fair Board declared last December that that month’s gun show
would be the last one at the Fairgrounds, we did not back down and now all of
the scheduled shows for 2016 are going forward as we said they would. While the Fairgrounds is not the only venue
in town, we want to be there, our customers want us to be there, and we expect
to be there through 2017 and beyond.”
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