A Louisville gun show at the center of controversy two years ago when vendors sold Nazi Christmas ornaments and a Ku Klux Klan robe is set to return to the Kentucky Expo Center in October after its coronavirus-safety plan was approved by Governor Andy Beshear’s office.
The National Gun Day show is expected to draw 2,000 to 3,000 people over two days, Oct. 3 and 4, advertising 1,650 tables of firearms and accessories sold by vendors from across the country.
The show will be held in the Expo Center’s 218,000-square-foot North Wing, roughly double the space needed to comply with state health guidelines of 36 square feet per person, according to the plan submitted by the gun show and the Kentucky Exposition Center.
The plan, obtained by the Courier Journal through a public records request, states face masks will be required for all attendees and “additional staff will be patrolling the facility to help remind everyone” of that requirement.
Aisles will be added and widened, hand sanitizer stations will be placed throughout the area and attendees will be required to give their names and phone numbers before entering, presumably to help with contact tracing in the event someone tests positive for the virus.
The show’s manager, Ron Dickson, declined to speak with a reporter when reached by phone last week, saying he was angry about photographs published by The Courier Journal in 2018 that showed vendors selling or displaying racist memorabilia, including a KKK robe and glittery Nazi Christmas ornaments.
“We’re gonna have a great show,” Dickson told a reporter before refusing to answer additional questions.
Those photographs sparked outrage by some in the community, who noted the timing of the 2018 gun show: Three days after Gregory Bush allegedly gunned down a Black man and woman outside a Jeffersontown Kroger and on the same day a white supremacist killed 11 people at a Pittsburgh synagogue.
Previous coverage: Nazi Christmas ornaments and KKK robe sold at Louisville gun show
“Immediately I was horrified, I had no idea that was being sold,” Mark Lynn, chairman of the Kentucky State Fair Board, told The Courier Journal after the photographs were published. “It’s disappointing and frustrating. I’m one to stand up for freedoms, but this is just common sense.”
University of Kentucky greats Rex Chapman and Mike Pratt weighed in on the controversy, tweeting that their Hall of Fame plaques would be removed from the Expo Center if no action was taken to ban such items.
A month later, the fair board, which operates the Expo Center, unanimously passed a resolution banning the sale of racist memorabilia.
There were no media reports of similar issues at last year's show.
Staff reporter Joe Sonka contributed to this story.
Jonathan Bullington is an investigative reporter. Reach him at: 502-582-4241; JBullington@courierjournal.com; Twitter: @jrbullington. Support strong local journalism by subscribing today: courier-journal.com/subscribe.
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Controversial gun show that once sold Nazi and Klan items to be in Louisville in October - Courier Journal
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