To: Our Arizona Gun Show Friends
From:  Bob Templeton, Crossroads of the West Gun Shows
Subject: Arizona State Fire Marshal Limits on Ammunition
             at Fairgrounds Gun Show July 6-7

The Arizona State Fire Marshal Deputy  Phil Mele' decided less than a week before the last Phoenix gun show that he was going to limit the amount of ammunition in the building at the show.

The Uniform Fire Code of 1997, which is the Code that the State Fire Marshal uses, limits primers to 25,000 in a  building.  We have never allowed primers to be sold inside the buildings at the gun show.  However, Phil  Mele' decided, in his wisdom, that since each cartridge has a primer, he would limit the amount of ammunition in the building to 25,000 rounds.  Such a low limit on ammunition would have made it impossible to have a gun show.  Our dealers typically have between 3 and 4 million rounds offered for sale at the shows.

The Uniform Fire Code of 1997, the same version that the Fire Marshal was quoting from, clearly exempts small arms ammunition from any quantity limitations in a subsequent section of the Code.  The Fire Marshal chose to ignore the exemption provided for small arms ammunition, claiming that no exemption was provided for the retail display of ammunition.  Section 7701.1, provides that no limits shall be imposed on quantities of ammunition.  Sec. 7701.1, Exceptions, states that    " (4) The possession,  transportation, storage and use of small arms ammunition when packaged in accordance with DOT packaging requirements."  Thus ammunition is clearly exempted from the quantity limits under the uniform fire code.

The Fire Marshal Deputy  Phil Mele' is clearly misinterpreting the Uniform Fire Code and we need to call him to task for his error.  We are asking our gun show friends to join us in a grass-roots contact campaign to encourage Mele', his supervisor Assistant State Fire Marshal Steve Alley, and the Chief State Fire Marshal Duane Pell, to re-evaluate their interpretation of the Code as it relates to the storage, display and sale of small arms ammunition.