BATF Notice Bans Private Gun Sales In Texas

[Tim Nunan]

http://www.prisonplanet.com/batf-notice ... texas.html

There is no law to prevent private sales without a license, police issue “direction” on orders of Feds

Steve Watson
Infowars.net
Monday, Jan 18, 2010

The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives is actively issuing directions banning private sales of guns without licenses at gun shows in Texas, despite there being no law to justify such demands.

A caller to the Alex Jones show brought attention to BATF notices handed out at the entrance of the Texas Gun And Knife Show, on North Lamaar, in Austin this past weekend.

The flyers (pictured at link) state that anyone selling a firearm “will be asked to comply with” conditions including operating through a licensed FFL dealer.

The notice also states that “Selling firearms in the parking lot will not be permitted.”

“The lady at the front desk used her ‘mommy voice’ to get everyone’s attention.” Scott from Austin told The Alex Jones show, noting that the owners of the private building where the gun show was held were contacted by the APD and the BATF and directed to hand out the notices.

Scott also told listeners that a petition in protest of the directions was being handed around at the show.

Other attendees posted the flyer on web forums. One poster noted:

“Here is a public notice from a gun show in Austin, Texas this weekend. Do any fellow Texans know of any law changes that took effect recently that make person-to-person gun sales illegal? Has anyone else seen similar notices?”

“It was not handed out in the parking lot, it was posted at the entrance of the venue.” The forum user writes.

“I spoke with the man who runs the gun show and he said he was told on Thursday to post this (the gun show was Saturday and Sunday). Of course, the owner of the venue has the right to prohibit almost anything he wants on his property, but that’s not what this notice says. It says ‘at the direction of the Austin Police Department and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms’ and that’s what bothers me.”

The direction “asks” visitors to comply with its demands precisely because there is no law or regulation against private gun sales.

Infowars is in the process of arranging interviews with the Texas Gun Show operators for comments on this issue.

[macville]

Kinda sounds like a cop asking to search your car or house. This is the exact reason we need to tell the people in power in Washington to go screw themselves. We were supposed to be small countries united in defense, not a giant juggernaut that's going out of control and making EVERYONE mad.

Matthew

[C. Richard Archie]

Austin is slightly to the left of San Fransisco, or Moscow. Not surprised in the least.

Try that in Muleshoe.

[RobertNashville]

The best (immediate) way to combat this kind of overreaching is for anyone actually confronted with such a "request" is to either ignore it and do what the law allows or, if a show owner decides to comply/tries to enforce what the law doesn't require, for the show goer to "go" to shows where the show owners have more intestinal fortitude.

[Tim Nunan]

http://www.infowars.com/apd-releases-of ... shut-down/

Kurt Nimmo
Infowars.com
January 22, 2010

An APD News press release dated January 19, 2010, offers an official explanation of the actions taken by the Austin Police and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives (ATF) to ensure the shut down of Texas Gun Shows in central Texas. The press releases reveals that in addition to the ATF, Federal Immigration, Customs, and Enforcement (ICE) agents were involved in the conspiracy to deny Texans access to firearms at legal gun shows.

“Austin Police Department Firearm Review Unit detectives assisted in the Austin portion of the operation. They observed and participated in multiple arrests of prohibited persons (primarily convicted felons and illegal immigrants) that obtained firearms illegally at a local gun show. Federal convictions were obtained in a majority of the cases,” the press release states.

The alleged criminal activity occurred at the venue prior to Darwin Boedecker and Texas Gun Shows leasing the space. The APD, however, does not make this fact clear in the press release.

Due to the history of criminal activity at the gun show, the Nuisance Abatement Unit scheduled a meeting between the property lessee (HEB Grocery), the building sub-lessee (Andrew Perkel a.k.a Austin Market Place), the event promoter (Darwin Boedecker-Texas Gun Shows) and ATF. During this meeting, APD along with ATF offered to all parties, recommendations to curb the illegal activity that had been documented in the past. At the conclusion of the meeting the lessee agreed that the recommendations should be followed and instructed their sub-lessee to follow the recommendations. The sub-lessee then informed the event promoter to implement the recommendations at the next show.

According to the APD, Boedecker agreed to the following: 1) Only licensed gun dealers are allowed to sell firearms at the gun shows, 2) The promoter will provide on-site security to prevent parking lot gun sales, and 3) The promoter will define a process for people other than licensed dealers that show up with a gun that they want to sell.

Darwin Boedecker posted the first two of these “recommendations” at the show held on the weekend of January 16-17, 2010.

It is not illegal for private citizens in Texas to sell firearms. The demand by the ATF and Austin cops is a direct violation of the Commerce Clause (Article I, Section 8, Clause 3 of the U.S. Constitution). In addition, under the terms of the Firearm Owners Protection Act of 1986, individuals “not engaged in the business” of dealing firearms, or who only make “occasional” sales within their state of residence (including parking lots) are not subjected to federal regulation.

The APD subsequently used the ruse of “criminal activity” (citizens legally selling firearms) as an excuse to close down the Texas Gun Shows. “Following the staged arrest of a man by the Austin Police — subsequently released without charge — the BATF pressured lease holders HEB to shut down the oldest gun show in central Texas,” Infowars reported on January 18, 2010.

It is now obvious the shut down of Texas Gun Shows is part of a larger effort by the Obama administration to close down gun shows and deny the American people their right to buy and sell firearms.

“What’s being touted as the largest single investigation and prosecution against individuals in the history of the Justice Department’s enforcement of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act occurred Monday in Las Vegas,” writes Illinois Gun for Infowars today. “The individuals arrested are executives and employees of military and law enforcement products companies that were in Las Vegas to attend the 2010 Shooting, Hunting, Outdoor Trade Show (Shot show) and are charged with violating the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA).”

“The Justice Department called the case the largest single investigation and prosecution of individuals in the history of the 1977 Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, which bars bribery of foreign government officials,” reports The Boston Herald.

The FBI operation was conducted as a sting. The individuals in question did not actually violate the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act.

The corporate media, with the exception of The Boston Herald, BusinessWeek, and firearms trade magazines, failed to report the story.

[RobertNashville]

As I've thought about this issue I've increasingly had mixed feelings about it.

It seems to me that having some restrictions on who can purchase/own firearms is both reasonable and prudent. I think it reasonable, for example, to not allow convicted felons or illegal aliens to own firearms. If we accept such restrictions as legitimate then if follows that there has to be a way to enforce the restriction (such as the background check that occurs when a person buys a firearm from a licensed dealer).

I think it pretty obvious that gun shows are a place where those who could not pass a background check can still buy a firearm. I’m not blaming the gun shows; it’s just a simple truth.

I’m not in any way suggesting that gun shows should be “shut down” but I do think that if they are to continue, they are going to have to make some changes such as not allowing any parking lot transactions and requiring that all transactions that do happen must be through a licensed dealer/with a background check.

Making such changes may well be the best way to keep the ATF/other federal agencies at bay.

[C. Richard Archie]

[RobertNashville]

[C. Richard Archie]

[RobertNashville]

[C. Richard Archie]

[David Lewis]

[RobertNashville]

[RobertNashville]

[C. Richard Archie]

[RobertNashville]

[C. Richard Archie]

[RobertNashville]

[C. Richard Archie]

[RobertNashville]