A small firestorm erupted in the gun-owner community in Texas this past weekend. Visitors to the Austin gun show were met with this flier:
Calls to talk shows created a firestorm. Texas firearms forums are outraged that this could happen. Charles Cotton, attorney and head of the Texas State Rifle Association, is investigating. There is nothing illegal which would otherwise prevent selling a firearm person-to-person in Austin, TX without an FFL doing an NICS background check.
Darwin Boedeker, owner and promoter of Texas Gun Shows (
http://texasgunshows.net/default.aspx), went on the radio today for more than 2 hours to tell his side of the story about what happened. I'm pasting the show in YouTube radio broadcast segments below.
The Austin PD called Darwin to have a 2 hour meeting last Thursday. The building housing the gun show is owned by Wal-Mart and the primary lease holder is HEB. The HEB employee responsible for that building was there. There were several APD detectives and an ATF agent there. They told Darwin that they would like for him to follow their suggestions, which were to ban firearms sales except through FFLs. The police then threatened Darwin that there were pending investigations into his business for activity over the last 10 years of allegedly allowing sales to ineligible buyers. However, Darwin's business just started operating in Austin after a different company, Saxet Gun Shows, quit putting on shows in Austin. Darwin responded by asking them if they were aware that his company, Texas Gun Shows, is different than Saxet Gun Shows, which is who they were talking about. APD didn't even realize this and were confused for a bit. Then APD put pressure on the HEB representative, and together the APD, ATF and HEB representative told Darwin that he would not be allowed to open the show if he did not follow their recommendations, which were to create the flyer you've seen and ban sales that didn't accompany an NICS check.
APD and the ATF have no statutory authority to threaten Darwin and order him around like they did. Two of Darwin's biggest vendors canceled and he expects attendance to be down by over 50% next month. This guy needs our support. He is a 2nd Amendment supporter and is running a family business. The ATF and APD are basically destroying his business with their unlawful "suggestions". Nothing that he is doing is illegal. He is not charged with any crime, but the police are unlawfully threatening outside a court to literally shut down his business unless he does what they want. He said that he will not be able to stay in business if this continues. If you are around Austin, we need to go to the next show February 20/21 and not let them kill the Austin gun show. If you are not in Texas, be vigilant for the ATF and local police trying to do this in your town.
The police also made a big scene at the gun show to intimidate people. A vendor was placed in handcuffs by APD and lead through the crowd for everyone to see. He was taken outside but was later released and not arrested.
Interview today (say what you want about Alex, but he's a die-hard 2nd Amendment supporter and this is 100% not tin):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Uc-gFyPV3Dw
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KMc4kptEOvQ
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xTC8S6LrzZM
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dOysmhE8jiI
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ciBeIf6piNY
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D9lulja1tTs
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=byqYad3NlPw
