Great Western Shows, Inc. v. County of Los Angeles
California Supreme Court · No. S091547 · 44 P.3d 120
👎Unfavorable to gun rights
State high court sustained the county's authority to ban gun and ammunition sales on its property.
GunMapUSA assessment of the outcome's direction, not a statement that the court decided rightly or wrongly.
What the court held
Los Angeles County adopted an ordinance banning firearm and ammunition sales on county property and applied it to gun shows a promoter had run for 22 years at the county-owned fairgrounds in Pomona. Answering questions certified by the Ninth Circuit, the California Supreme Court held that state laws regulating firearms sales and gun shows do not preempt the ordinance and do not compel counties to open their property to gun shows, and that a county may regulate firearm sales on its own property even when that property lies within an incorporated city. Justice Brown dissented, arguing the county was regulating the conduct of a lessee rather than acting as a property owner.
Summarized from the court's opinion.
What this case is about
whether state firearms law preempts a county ordinance banning gun and ammunition sales on county property
GunMapUSA summary of the issue, not a quotation from the court.
Key Dates
- 2002-04-22 — Decided
Sources
- CourtListener — retrieved 2026-08-08
Summary of public court records. Not legal advice.