The Solano County Fairgrounds will continue to host gun shows in 2022 after its board members voted 4-2 Wednesday night in favor keeping them around.

Valerie Williams of District 5 and Manny Angel of District 1 were the two "no" votes for the motion, which took place at an in-person and Zoom meeting at McCormack Hall.

Back in August of this year, Board of Directors President Lee Williams explained that the board met and took action to no longer host gun shows at the fairgrounds at the end of 2021. However, the current contract was kept, meaning shows were held at the site in October as well as plans to host one this weekend.

However, there has been plenty of feedback from the community since that announcement as well as a concern about whether the Solano County Fair Association (SCFA)  was in full compliance with the Brown Act.  Due to this, the board held the Wednesday night meeting in which the opinions of many on the board had changed.

Meanwhile, a large portion of the audience and people emailing in their responses were in favor of the fairgrounds keeping the gun shows. Reasons for the desire to keep the shows ranged from people feeling the meetings were educational on gun safety to a way to meet people for a sense of camaraderie.

Carlene Ellis from Galt said she began going to gun shows a few years ago because she wanted to protect herself and her roommate.

"I got so much information," Ellis said. "There were people telling me where to go to classes, and showing me safe handling of firearms. There were people instructing me what kind of ammunition to put in firearms. There were people telling me what kind of firearm to get that would be best for me. I've found gun shows to be a very social event. I get a lot of knowledge at them."

Charles Smith wrote in by email saying, "These shows have all of the background checks laws and other laws regulating to firearms. More importantly they give average citizens like me an opportunity to learn more about gun safety and to have the best equipment available, which is getting increasingly hard to purchase in the few remaining gun shops in the Bay Area. I am a safer gun owner because of these shows. These shows also give me the opportunity to connect with other gun owners."

Of the 21 people that emailed in their opinions on the issue, 17 of them were in favor of continuing gun shows at the fairground. With public speakers in person at the event, only one was against having gun shows at the venue, while nearly 30 were for it.

Many of the board members seemed on the fence with the issue but the strongest advocate for keeping the shows was Jeff Moorhead out of District 5.

"I've been to not only gun shows in the past, but this particular gun show at Solano since they've existed," Moorhead said. "I've also been to gun shows in the southern part of the country and I'll tell you right now that this gun show in Solano is the most restrictive one."

Moorhead went on to say that he felt gun safety should be taught in schools more and felt voting against keeping gun shows at the fairgrounds would be an infringement of Second Amendment rights.

"Look, guns don't do anything they're not told to do," Moorhead said. "Guns don't shoot people, people shoot people. If you're going to get rid of guns, why not get rid of spoons? Because spoons will make people get fat."

Moorhead then told a story about how two years ago he changed as a person when he watched "animals loot a Walmart." He claimed to have gone into Fairfield with his "cold blue steel" to help escort ladies from Bible study to their homes.

"Why did they feel safe with me? It was because I had a gun," Moorhead said, his voice rising. "There is no way in hell I'm going to vote no on having gun shows at the fairgrounds."

Others like board member Valerie Williams wasn't as sure about continuing the gun shows at the venue.

"Vallejo has a very high crime rate but it wasn't until I visited their website that I saw homicide rates had gone from 10 to 27 in 2020 that I realized just how bad it is," Williams said. "And of the 27 (homicides) all of them were done with a firearm. My dad was held up years ago at gunpoint while working at a grocery store and put in the meat locker with another worker for hours. My cousin and uncle committed suicide and they did it with a firearm. So this a sensitive issue to me."

However, Williams, along with board member Norma Placido, were fearful that a vote of no would put the fairgrounds in litigation that might be impossible to get out of and would eventually put the fairgrounds in bankruptcy.

Angel also voted no on the motion, saying although he heard all of the opinions of the audience members, he also "hears the sirens and the crime scanner every night."

The 4-2 vote in favor of keeping the gun shows in Vallejo goes into effect immediately. A gun show will be hosted by Code of the West Productions at the fairgrounds on Friday and Saturday.

The Solano County Fairgrounds are located at 900 Fairgrounds Drive in Vallejo.