BATF Notice Bans Private Gun Sales In Texas

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 below) 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.

BATF Notice Bans Private Gun Sales In Texas 180110gunsales

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.

Watch Alex Jones cover this story on Yesterday’s show (begins 7 mins in):

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XVHM8d0SloI&feature=player_embedded

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lat1jw_1nyE&feature=player_embedded

Texas Gun Shows Organizer Targeted by the ATF Makes His Case on the Alex Jones Show

Kurt Nimmo
Infowars.com
January 18, 2010

Darwin Boedeker of Texas Gun Shows appeared on the Alex Jones Show today and provided details of the criminal conspiracy by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (abbreviated ATF) and the Austin police to shut down the show last week.

Under the Commerce Clause of the U.S. Constitution, the ATF has absolutely no authority to regulate gun sales between private individuals on the state of Texas.

In a classic case of Mafia intimidation, the ATF in league with the Austin Police Department leaned on Boedeker in a brazen and illegal attempt to scare away participants and ultimately close down his business.

On Thursday, January 14, Mr. Boedeker was asked to meet with representatives of the ATF and Austin police at a building in Austin used for police interviews and interrogations. In addition to Boedeker, the two hour meeting included the participation of HEB, an Austin grocery retailer. HEB holds the lease on the building where the Texas Gun Shows events are held on the third week of every month.

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.

Boedeker’s flier issued under government coercion and the demand of the event center building lease holder states:

“At the direction of the Austin Police Department and the The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms anyone selling a firearm at this show location will be asked to comply with the following: 1. Any person selling a personal firearm must go through a licensed FFL Dealer in the show to transfer the firearm to the new owner. 2. Selling of Firearms in the parking lot will not be permitted. Thank you for your cooperation!”

Police officers dressed in street clothes attended the event and watched participants, according to Boedeker. The police admitted to him they are interested in forcing gun shows to provide background checks on buyers.


According to 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, are under no requirement to conduct background checks on purchasers or maintain records of sale.



Numerous states, however, require background checks. 17 states micro-manage private firearm sales at gun shows without federal participation. Seven states require background checks on all gun sales at gun shows — California, Rhode Island, Connecticut, Oregon, New York, Illinois and Colorado. Four states — Hawaii, Maryland, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania — require background checks on handgun, but not long gun purchasers. Five states require individuals to obtain a permit to purchase handguns that involves a background check — Massachusetts, Michigan, North Carolina, Iowa, Nebraska. Several counties in Florida require background checks on all private sales of handguns at gun shows. The remaining 33 states do not restrict private, intrastate sales of firearms at gun shows in any manner, a right guaranteed under the Commerce Clause of the U.S. Constitution.

In order to intimidate participants and potential firearms buyers, the Austin police arrested a man during the weekend event. He was held for an hour and then released without charge. Boedeker said he believes this stunt was preformed in order to intimidate gun buyers and scare people away.

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.

Mr. Boedeker told Alex Jones near the end of his interview he had received numerous calls from people during the show who supported his effort to resist government coercion and intimidation and said they would attend the event next month in support.

Alex Jones said aggressive political action will be required in support of the event and the right of people to legally purchase firearms under the Commerce Clause of the U.S. Constitution and the Second Amendment. In addition, Alex said lawsuits against the federal government and the APD are in order to put an end to their illegal and Mafia-like behavior.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A2wvu8kvmK4&feature=player_embedded

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XpbBun9ys6Q&feature=player_embedded

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AwQi4f1mCF0&feature=player_embedded

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vz59hhCdswQ&feature=player_embedded

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pY0rvshHukE&feature=player_embedded

Obama Administration Shuts Down Oldest Gun Show in Central Texas

Kurt Nimmo
Infowars.com
January 19, 2010

In a disturbing update to a story covered in-depth today on the Alex Jones Show, Texas grocery retailer HEB has banned Texas Gun Shows from holding a monthly gun show. HEB is the lease holder on the property where the gun show was held.

The Obama administration is the most anti-Second Amendment administration is U.S. history.

HEB used the staged arrest of a man by the Austin Police — subsequently released without charge — at the event over the weekend as a pretext to shut down the oldest gun show in central Texas.

Alex Jones noted on his show today that he has attended guns shows at the venue since he was in high school.

Listeners to the Alex Jones Show should be aware that this backhanded tactic or similar tactics used by the ATF will be used at the behest of the Obama administration to shut down legal gun shows in other states. The Obama administration is the most anti-Second Amendment administration is U.S. history.

Congressional Democrats and their Constitution-hating allies have proposed two bills in an attempt to shut down gun shows. The Gun Show Loophole Closing Act of 2009 (H.R. 2324) was introduced in the House by the notorious gun-grabber Carolyn McCarthy of New York. Senator Frank Lautenberg introduced similar legislation, the Gun Show Background Check Act of 2009 (S. 843), in the U.S. Senate. As of October 2009, the House version of the bill had 35 co-sponsors (mostly Democrats) and the Senate version had 15 co-sponsors, all Democrats.

Obama’s top cop, Eric Holder, is a gun-grabber’s dream come true. “As Deputy Attorney General, Holder was a strong supporter of restrictive gun control. He advocated federal licensing of handgun owners, a three day waiting period on handgun sales, rationing handgun sales to no more than one per month, banning possession of handguns and so-called ‘assault weapons’ (cosmetically incorrect guns) by anyone under age of 21, a gun show restriction bill that would have given the federal government the power to shut down all gun shows, national gun registration, and mandatory prison sentences for trivial offenses (e.g., giving your son an heirloom handgun for Christmas, if he were two weeks shy of his 21st birthday),” David Kopel wrote in 2008.

New Jersey Democrat senator Frank R. Lautenberg said last June he planned to introduce legislation designed to cancel the Second Amendment rights of well over a million U.S. citizens. “Mr. Lautenberg plans to introduce legislation on Monday that would give the attorney general the discretion to block gun sales to people on terror watch lists,” the New York Times reported on June 20, 2009. The federal terror watch list contains over a million names.

As a state senator in Illinois, Obama supported a number of laws and regulations designed to restrict and outlaw firearms. Obama supports the CIFTA Gun Treaty. Last year, in meetings with Mexican President Felipe Calderon, Obama promised to urge the U.S. Senate to pass the international arms control treaty. Under the Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties, international legal obligations are superior rank to national law. The treaty would impose the most draconian gun laws in U.S. history.

The Obama administration and its Marxist czars (the sort of Marxism created and supported by the banksters) and policy makers are on the march and they will not be satisfied until they outlaw and confiscate all firearms from law-abiding Americans.

Now is the time to become politically involved. Find out where your representatives stand on so-called gun control and especially their stand on local gun shows and sales of legal firearms between individuals. If they are gun-grabbing Democrats and their spineless Republican confederates, work to get them out of office. Expose them for the Second Amendment traitors they are.

Become aware of ATF activity in your state and the complicity of local law enforcement. Only through awareness and political action can we save our Constitution and Second Amendment from the claws of the New World Order and its long-stated goal to disarm the public and impose a globalist dictatorship. They fear an armed and informed public. Make sure they remain afraid.

If we blow this covert op in Texas off and do nothing, we can expect more of the same around the country. Don’t embolden the ATF and the Obama administration. Get active today or lose your right to defend yourself against criminals and a predatory government.

Tennessee Follows Texas In Banning Private Gun Shows

Licensing mandates dealers to turn over plethora of information to authorities under new legislation


Paul Joseph Watson
Prison Planet.com
Tuesday, January 19, 2010

Tennessee has followed Texas in demanding that dealers obtain licenses and turn over a plethora of information to authorities before being able to host a gun show in another devastating attack on the second amendment.

The legislation, HB 2422, which has not yet passed, would make it a Class A misdemeanor for any person to organize, plan, promote, or operate a gun show without government approval.

The bill makes it a crime for anyone who wishes to operate a gun show unless they follow the following procedures;

(1) Notifies the TBI and the chief law enforcement officer in the county in which the gun show is to be held of the dates, times, and location of the gun show;
(2) Verifies the identity of each gun show dealer participating in the gun show by examining a valid photo identification document of the dealer, before commencement of the gun show;
(3) Requires each gun show dealer to sign a ledger with information identifying the dealer, including the dealer’s name and address, before commencement of the gun show; and
(4) Maintains a copy of the records described above in (2) and (3) at the gun show promoter’s permanent place of business for one year from the date of the gun show.

The legislation also contains a blanket ban on all unlicensed gun sales within 1,000 feet of an unapproved gun show.

The bill would take effect on January 1, 2011 if signed into law.


As we highlighted yesterday, 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 Lamar, in Austin this past weekend.

The flyers (pictured below) 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.

Gun show owner, police at odds over recommendations

Show owner says police advice heavy-handed.
By Tony Plohetski

AMERICAN-STATESMAN STAFF

Published: 9:26 p.m. Tuesday, Jan. 19, 2010

An Austin police effort to curtail the illegal sales of firearms at a weekend gun show sparked an angry response from the event's organizer and raised concerns about whether the department overstepped its authority.

Several police recommendations about the operation of the show were intended to curtail crime there and should not have been viewed as requirements, authorities said Tuesday.

But the show organizer said he thought that law enforcement officials were instructing him to adopt rules that violated state and federal law, including a requirement that only licensed gun dealers be allowed to sell firearms. He said he begrudgingly enforced the recommendations.

The dispute, which began late last week, has since sparked a controversy that is playing out on Web sites and radio talk shows.

Darwin Boedeker, owner of Texas Gun Shows, said he is collecting petitions from people who support gun shows without such requirements and will present them to the Texas attorney general's office.

"All they are doing is keeping the honest man from being able to do what is afforded to him by the Constitution," Boedeker said. "We have a right to buy and sell firearms as citizens of America, as legal, law-abiding citizens. That right is being infringed on us."

According to state and federal law, the private sale of guns is not illegal unless the seller knows the buyer is prohibited from purchasing a weapon, which includes being a convicted felon or an undocumented immigrant.

Gun dealers must have a license.

Austin police said that last year, while assisting federal agents in combating the sale of guns to undocumented immigrants, they recorded a number of illegal transactions. The repeated offenses at the site — a former Sam's Club location on North Lamar Boulevard — prompted police to refer the location to the department's nuisance abatement unit, which works with owners to reduce the number of crimes on their properties.

Police officials said they met last week with representatives from H-E-B, which handles the lease of the property, and with Boedeker, during which they outlined recommendations for reducing crime at the site.

The suggestions included permitting only licensed gun dealers to sell firearms, providing private security to prevent parking lot gun sales and defining a process for people other than licensed dealers who want to sell a gun at the show.

"We merely gave suggestions to reduce the amount of criminal violations that were occurring at this property," Austin police spokesman Cpl. Scott Perry said.

Boedeker said H-E-B representatives told him to follow the recommendations during the two-day show, which featured about two dozen vendors Saturday and Sunday.

"What they did was strong-arm H-E-B into making me do what I did," he said. "The problem is that it is unconstitutional to say I can't sell my private firearm to another individual."

H-E-B spokeswoman Leslie Lockett said Tuesday that police told company officials Monday about a possible illegal gun sale during the weekend and have decided that gun shows should not be hosted at the site until the issue is resolved.

Boedeker said he will look for a new venue to host shows.

He said that in the past couple of days, he has received numerous calls from across the state and nation from people who want information about what happened.

"There are a lot of upset people who want to know the truth," he said.

tplohetski@statesman.com; 445-3605

Gun show owner alleges rights violation
Click here for a free download of the latest Adobe Flash Player.

by NOELLE NEWTON / KVUE News

Posted on January 19, 2010 at 5:47 PM

Updated yesterday at 6:14 PM
******

A gun show owner says the Austin Police Department violated his constitutional rights. Police are now setting the record straight.

The controversy centers around a yellow flyer passed out at the Texas Gun Show in North Austin last weekend. It reads:

"Selling of Firearms"

At the direction of the Austin Police Department and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms, anyone selling a firearm at this show location will be asked to comply with the following:

1. Any person selling a personal firearm must go through a licensed FFL dealer in the show to transfer the firearm to the new owner.

2. Selling of firearms in the parking lot will not be permitted.

Thank you for your cooperation!

APD Detective T.J. Vineyard told reporters in a news conference Tuesday, the recommendations were the result of a year long police investigation of the gun shows.

"Every time we were there we observed transactions that were either questionable or illegal so our effort was to find ways to address that,” he said.

Vineyard said the goal of the operation was to stop illegal gun trafficking to Mexico.

"Some people would go to vendors to purchase a firearm, and when they were asked to fill out paperwork to do a background check they would bypass that vendor and go to another vendor that wouldn't require a background check,” Vineyard said.

HEB rents out the building where the gun shows are held. Company representatives asked for help to stop the problem. APD and members of the ATF recommended show owner Darwin Boedeker stop allowing private citizens to sell guns without the assistance of a licensed dealer. Thus, forcing every buyer to have a background check.

"Most of the people who are trying to achieve legitimate sales of firearms want that protection, They want to know the gun their buying isn't stolen or the person they sold a gun to isn't a felon or on parole for murder,” Vineyard said.

Boedeker says the request is a violation of our constitutional right to freely sell guns.

"What they want to do is shut the gun shows down. This just doesn't affect me. This affects you, this affects the person down the road, every law abiding citizen,” he said.

Boedeker went along with the recommendations for last weekend's show, but still APD made an arrest. He says HEB has since told him he can no longer hold shows here. Boedeker is convinced police wanted to HEB to make that call.

"At least they knew where to go to arrest them. If there wasn't a gun show, they'd be down in a back alley. Felons are always going to be able to get a gun. That's why they're felons. They don't follow the law,” Boedeker said.

"We didn't mandate anything, we didn't direct anyone to do anything. We made suggestions to them and how to handle that with their tenants or sub-leasers is a civil matter among them," Vineyard said.

Police say during the past year they have arrested eight people on illegal weapons charges. Texas Gun Shows has been using the North Austin Event Center since November. Before that the Saxet Gun Show was there. Boedeker says he knows of only one arrest since he's used the property. He says he's trying to find a new location for his show.

Doc this has NOT passed in Tn yet. It has been introduced by a 'Ford' type Dem in Memphis but NO co-sponsers has been found for it yet and is not likely to from what I am hearing from some I know in the State Capital who KNOW about such things.

APD Releases Official Explanation of Gun Shows Shut Down

Kurt Nimmo
Infowars.com
January 23, 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.