A gun show held at the Glendale Civic Auditorium for two decades will have to find a new home after the City Council voted Tuesday to ban the events from municipal property.
The city has been grappling for months with the decision to nix the events, with Tuesday’s 3-2 vote being the final call on the Glendale Gun Shows, according to Sgt. To, Lorez, spokesman for the Glendale Police Department.
The events have generated about $158,000 in revenue during the last three years. According to a city report, the events would have brought in another $57,000 to the venue this year.
The Glendale Civic Auditorium hosted its final gun show on March 2-3. Now-cancelled events were slated at the venue in August and November. Three shows were scheduled for 2014.
City Council members voted in January to postpone making their decision while the city attorney continued to review the proposed ban. Last week, City Council members voted 3-2 – the same as Tuesday’s count – to introduce the new ordinance banning the gun shows.
The move is a success for Councilmember Rafi Manoukian, who unsuccessfully tried to pass a similar prohibition in 2006.
Manoukian re-introduced the idea after the Newtown, Conn., elementary school shooting that left 20 children and six educators dead less than two weeks before Christmas.
The ordinance will go into effect 30 days from Tuesday, effectively terminating rental agreements with two gun shows in 2013 and three events in 2014.
Photo Credit: NBC 7 San Diego