A Letter in Defense of the Crossroads of the West Gunshow.

To:  Barbra Quaid, CEO-bquaid@venturacountyfair.org

and

Heidi Ortiz, Executive Secretary-hortiz@venturacountyfair.org

Date: 11/26/2018

I hope that either of you will take the time to read my email in support of Crossroads of the West using the Venue of the Ventura County Fairgrounds.

I work full time and have neither the luxury or subsidy to be able to appear in person. For enjoyment I teach various forms of firearm safety, working with various firearms from the 1700's forward. As I am local, the Crossroads of the West Gunshow is the only one that I have a table at that gives me the opportunity to be able to meet with people from our area. I started attending the show last year and have found from the beginning that the people who run it do an awesome job. They make sure that the vendors are operating following the law and that the space is safe and secure.

I expect that you will have your fill of heart wrenching stories of lives touched and cut short as a result of criminals who used guns. Or equally heart wrenching stories of accidents where people were injured or killed by guns, or incidents where people committed suicide with the aid of a gun.  Although tragic, how are such things the sole result of a firearm? If that were true then the same logic must be applied to the same tragedies that are a result of knives, vehicles, alcohol, all drugs prescription and illicit, incidents as a result of animal attack or accident, and virtually anything we come into contact with on a daily basis that either a criminal or person intent on doing harm to themselves or others can use to such ends.

That a group invests so much time into demonizing a very large portion of American society and forces us, in whichever group is the current target, to have to defend ourselves vigorously for no other reason than we disagree with them, should be troubling; because at some time we will all find ourselves in a targeted group because no matter how safe we feel in our beliefs or hobbies , someone , somewhere will take offense by it. The longer , the greater 'we' allow these outrages by smaller groups to dictate what 10's of thousands if not 100's of thousands of local citizens participate , peacefully in every year at your venue, the harder it will be to ever protect anything from such attack.If this is allowed to happen, you might as well just shut down your venue entirely and sell your land, because outrage can be found in everything.

By all means, extend heartfelt sorrow for their tragedy, and if they do not want to attend such a thing... Don't go....  But don't try to take away a thing that thousands upon thousands of people peacefully and respectfully participate in.  

I truly hope that you will allow the Crossroads of the West to continue renting your venue throughout the year, because there is no reason they should be denied over any other group that rents your venue.

Thank you for taking the time to read my letter

Sncerely,

DMS