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 asking to have a 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 attended. There were several APD detectives and an ATF agent. They told Darwin that they would like for him to follow their suggestions, which were to ban otherwise legal 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. Boedeker said he believes this stunt was preformed in order to intimidate gun buyers and scare people away.
Police, under the direction of ATF, told Boedeker he would be required to follow their “recommendations” or they would close down his event. Boedeker said he was told “you do what we say or we shut you down.” He said the ultimatum was recorded by the police and ATF.
Mr. Boedeker indicated enforcing the ATF recommendations would destroy his business. He said he would not issue a public notice unless it indicated the so-called recommendations were issued by the Austin Police and the ATF.
In order to make their case, the ATF and APD cited numerous alleged criminal cases associated with a previous gun show organizer. Mr. Boedeker said the ATF and APD did not seem aware that he is not associated with previous gun show events at the location.
Boedeker said he is far down on the “totem pole” of gun show events and he believes this is why the police under the direction of the ATF engaged in criminal racketeering against him.
Mr. Boedeker said enforcing the illegal government recommendations will ultimately drive away business and reduce participation by over 50 percent at the monthly event. In response to his flier, two large gun dealers backed out and did not attend the event last weekend.
Austin is known as "Berkeley On The Brazos". Great music but the politics are extreme left. Nothing like most of the Lone Star Republic.
