20 January
2010
Dears Members and Friends of the Constitution Party
of Texas:
On Saturday 16 January 2010, in an unprecedented
move and without legal authority, the Austin Police
Dept. and the BATF made it illegal to sell guns, at
a Austin gun show, without a FFL. See story
below:
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 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.
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We are the
OFFICIAL
Constitution Party of
Texas
Accept no
substitutes, and do not be fooled by
imposters!
Yes, believe it or
not, there are at least two other groups out there
who like our concept so much that they have stolen
our logos, our platform, and even our name! It's
nice to be popular, but this is the real
deal.
Just ask our National CP
Chairman,
Jim
Clymer.
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