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Fort Lauderdale Commissioner Wants To Ban Sale Of Assault Rifles At Local Gun Show

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FORT LAUDERDALE (CBSMiami) – A Fort Lauderdale city commissioner wants to ban a long running gun show in the city from selling assault rifles. But the organizers of that gun show say the commissioner is misinformed.

Fort Lauderdale City Commissioner Dean Trantalis says after Omar Mateen took 49 lives inside the Pulse nightclub in Orlando last week he wants city leaders to do more to restrict the sale of assault weapons.

Specifically, Trantalis is taking aim at the long running Florida Gun Show, which holds gun shows on city owned land at the War Memorial Auditorium.

"We feel that weapons such as this, assault weaponry, is inappropriate and it's my goal to eliminate that from our gun shows," he said.

Trantalis says the city needs to do this to keep its' residents safe.

"If we don't take these steps we are not protecting the people of our community," he told CBS4's Carey Codd.

There is a gun show on Saturday and Sunday at the auditorium. On Friday, you could see ads high above and on the ground while set up took place inside.

Trantalis says he wants to add a provision to the gun shows next lease agreement with the city to ban assault weapons.

But gun salesman Scott Mongeon says they don't sell fully automatic assault weapons at the show. They sell semi-automatic weapons.

Mongeon wants to make sure people understand that a weapon like this AR-15 cannot spray bullets and that he and others use it like a rifle for hunting and target shooting.

"Every time you squeeze the trigger a bullet comes out," he explained to Codd.

Mongeon believes the last thing politicians should do in the wake of Orlando is restrict people's right to buy firearms.

He says a change to the lease agreement would impact their business.

"It's gonna hurt a lot of vendors. It's gonna hurt a lot of the families that depend on that," he said.

But Trantalis sees this as an issue of safety.

"We're not trying to take guns from people. We're just trying to take a weapon of mass destruction out of the economy," he said.

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