SAN DIEGO — It's a new life for the the San Diego Gun Show.
For decades, the Del Mar fairgrounds had hosted the gun show until protests led to new legislation banning gun shows on state property. That gun show will be held at the Masonic Center in San Carlos October 21 and 22. It's a considerably smaller venue than the original gun show at the del mar fairgrounds, and that won't be the only difference.
Michael Schwartz of San Diego County Gun Owners PAC said the biggest challenge in finding a new venue for the gun show was finding enough space.
"The facilities like they have at Del Mar, that was perfect for a gun show," Schwartz said. "So that was the only thing that made it difficult, was finding some place big enough."
Gun shows on state-owned property, like the Del Mar fairgrounds, were declared illegal in California after Governor Newsom signed into law a bill written by Mayor Todd Gloria when Gloria was a state assembly member.
Schwartz said that this new gun show, which premiered a few months back, will also have an educational component, providing a symposium and featuring speakers on different topics, including the Second Amendment. San Diego County Sheriff Kelly Martinez is also scheduled to speak on concealed weapons permits.
"We want to make sure that people can abide by the many, many types of very restrictive gun laws in California and safely use their firearm in California," Schwartz told CBS 8.
"As a general principle, we don't have a stance against gun shows at all," said Ron Marcus, spokesperson for San Diegans for Gun Violence Prevention.
He said that the protest against having the gun show on the Del Mar fairgrounds centered on its being on state-funded land.
"A number of citizens groups didn't feel it was appropriate for tax payer money to be going to land that was featuring gun shows," Marcus told CBS 8.
Marcus said their group just wants to make sure any gun show follows the law, from restrictions around marketing firearms to children to ghost guns to background checks.
"We just want to make sure that gun shows. like any gun seller, are complying with the law," Marcus said.
"If you are a reasonable sane, trained, law-abiding person, then you'll see the value of a gun show," Schwartz said, "and you'll see the value of the education and the community we're providing."
He added that he's not certain if this new show will attract the many thousands of attendees that the show at Del Mar used to, but remains hopeful.
"What we want to do is grow it to where it's just as big and even bigger than Del Mar," he said.
The original gun show had come to the Del Mar Fairgrounds about five times a year. Schwartz said if the demand is there, this new show could eventually become just as frequent.
WATCH RELATED: New legislation would ban gun shows on all state-owned fairgrounds