State high court upholds restrictions on Sequim gun show

OLYMPIA — The state Supreme Court on Thursday upheld a city's restrictions on a gun show, but dissenters said the majority decision manages to circumvent state law that forbids cities from regulating gun shows on city property.

In a 6-3 ruling, the court rejected complaints that the city of Sequim ruined a gun show when the police chief imposed a number of restrictions.

The sponsors, the Pacific Northwest Shooting Park Association, and a firearms collector, Lawrence Witt, said the city had illegally interfered with its contract rights for the 2002 show at the town convention center. The last-minute restrictions caused some vendors to pull out and the event was a failure, organizers said.

The court, in a majority opinion written by Justice Mary Fairhurst, said that when the permit for the gun show was being considered, the city circulated it to the police and fire departments, the city manager and the public-works department, some of whom imposed conditions on the show. Police Chief Byron Nelson came to the convention hall the day before the gun show was to begin and announced the restrictions to the vendors, many of whom packed up and left. Organizers sued, but the trial court and appeals court sided with the city.

The high court said that Sequim's actions didn't violate the state law dealing with gun shows and that the organizers didn't properly advance their argument that the city damaged their contract rights and cost them business.

Dissenters were upset.

"The majority is wrong," turning upside down the state law that prohibits cities from regulating gun shows, Justice Richard Sanders wrote.