Mike Faires
Moderator
many texas gun owners will remember the outrage when it was announced that all gun sales had to go through FFL holders, no private sales would be tolerated.
Well the Houston Gun Collectors got on this outrage to our 2nd amendment rights and here is what they found out.
I tappears to be acombination of the APD overreaching and the GS promoter using a little selective memeory in presenting the story.
THE GREAT AUSTIN GUN SHOW INCIDENT
January 2010
By Darryl Valdes, HGCA President
Darryl next explained that there was a lot of e-mails going around in
January, about the Austin Gun Show, and what was lighting up the Texas State
Rifle Association (TSRA) board, as well as the internet about what was being
said about private gun sales would not be allowed in the Austin gun show.
Darryl then sent an e-mail to Alice Tripp of the TSRA, and she has done a
lot of investigation on this, and has come to tell us, in person, just
exactly what has happened, so let's give a big round of applause and a HGCA
welcome to Alice Tripp.
Alice then began to explain just exactly what had happened with the Austin
Gun Show. Todd Beyer is the gun show promoter that has the SAXET Gun Shows
and has had the Austin Gun Show for 13 years. Last October, Todd had gotten
crossways with his landlord, due to the rent money not getting all the way
up the food chain, as well as the air conditioner not working properly, and
had decided to pull the plug on his own gun show there in Austin, so he sent
out an e-mail to all of his exhibitors explaining that he was pulling the
plug on this show. Todd had hoped that he would go back later and start up
again, after they had replaced the landlord. Just the opposite happened.
The landlord leased the space out immediately to another gun show promoter,
Darwin Bodecker, whom has the Texas Gun Shows. Darwin then has an October,
November and December gun show. And then on the Thursday before his
January gun show, Darwin gets a phone call to attend a meeting with the
building owner, the landlord's representative, 2 APD detective officers,
and 1 BATF agent, and himself. He went by himself, without taking a lawyer
or anyone with him at all, or even calling anyone for information. This
meeting was about a Nuisance Abatement Hearing, which can be called for a
smelly dumpster, or if you have pigs next door, for loud noises or if the
police department gets several calls about your property and only the cities
can do this, as the county can't call these meetings. So that is what this
was about. Over a period of 1 year, there was one phone call to the police
department, every time there was a gun show there at the building, which is
an HEB property. There at the meeting, the two APD detectives stated that
they could recommend a Nuisance Abatement Hearing due to the statistics of
these phone calls that were only on gun show weekends. The building owner
asked what they could do to remedy this situation. And with that, they all
participated making suggestions. Well, it appears to us that the only
problems we have are the private vendors selling guns in the parking lot.
Maybe, if we didn't have private sellers, and if everything was run through
a background check, then maybe, there would not be a problem. Long story
short, our gun show promoter said, OK, fine with me. He was not
intimidated, he wasn't threatened. The only person that was threatened, was
the building owner, with a Nuisance Abatement Hearing.
The gun show promoter goes back and puts an e-mail out to all of his vendors
Thursday evening, notifying them that all gun show sales for this show
would have to go through a licensed dealers only, and that the public would
not be able to sell any of their firearms to any private exhibitors either,
but that they would also have to go through licensed dealers also. That is
how she heard about this. So, on Friday morning, she and Charles Cotton,
her executive director, whom is a lawyer, got on a conference call with the
gun show promoter, just 12 hours later, and he said that is the way it is
going to be. Anyone that walks into the gun show and wants to sell a gun
will have to go to a licensed dealer, and Alice said her heart stopped.
Alice said that she has been doing this job as legislative director for over
12 years, and in a blink of an eye, these guys at a meeting, agreed to do
things that they have been fighting for a decade. How could you do that?
So, at the gun show on Saturday, he has flyers made, and he was handing them
out to everyone that comes in the door at the show, stating that any and all
private firearms sales were to be handled only through a licensed dealer.
People went berserk, and then Darwin started doing damage control. He
stated that he was intimidated, and that they had forced him, and he started
to rewrite history. By Sunday one of the table vendors, whom was not an FFL
dealer, demonstrated his orneriness, checked the drivers license of a
Mexican college kid, and sold him a handgun. Alice got blow by blow,
thanks to text messaging and videos on face book. The vendor was not
arrested, but there was BATF and Austin Police Department presence there at
this vendor's table, which got back to the owner of the building, which said
that he was through, and there would be no more gun shows in his building.
Here is what happened. Once Darwin Bodecker participated in that meeting,
and agreed to everything that they asked him to do, so he kind of took it
all away from us, of what could have been official oppression, or anything
that would have been legal grounds for a lawsuit with the city. Alice had
talked to every police officer involved, and then she talked to a lot more
people, and she knows that when all of these stories end up being the same,
she is pretty sure that she has the truth. Long story short, the gun show
moved to a defunct Target Store, and has not missed a beat, and it didn't
cost him a dime more, and they are back in business. The things that
concern her, though, are the questions that were not asked, such as, how can
you have a nuisance call, if you don't have a conviction? If you are there
investigating what she wants us to watch for are these trumped up things
like nuisance issues within the city. They can cause guns shows problems,
as well as they could cause gun stores problems. Also, she wanted us to
know that he is collecting money for his legal expenses, and he didn't have
any. Alice then answered a lot of questions from the membership, about the
new Texas Concealed Handgun laws, and then she thanked everyone for allowing
her to explain what happened.
Darryl thanked Alice for coming and told her to have a safe trip back to
Paige, TX.
Well the Houston Gun Collectors got on this outrage to our 2nd amendment rights and here is what they found out.
I tappears to be acombination of the APD overreaching and the GS promoter using a little selective memeory in presenting the story.
THE GREAT AUSTIN GUN SHOW INCIDENT
January 2010
By Darryl Valdes, HGCA President
Darryl next explained that there was a lot of e-mails going around in
January, about the Austin Gun Show, and what was lighting up the Texas State
Rifle Association (TSRA) board, as well as the internet about what was being
said about private gun sales would not be allowed in the Austin gun show.
Darryl then sent an e-mail to Alice Tripp of the TSRA, and she has done a
lot of investigation on this, and has come to tell us, in person, just
exactly what has happened, so let's give a big round of applause and a HGCA
welcome to Alice Tripp.
Alice then began to explain just exactly what had happened with the Austin
Gun Show. Todd Beyer is the gun show promoter that has the SAXET Gun Shows
and has had the Austin Gun Show for 13 years. Last October, Todd had gotten
crossways with his landlord, due to the rent money not getting all the way
up the food chain, as well as the air conditioner not working properly, and
had decided to pull the plug on his own gun show there in Austin, so he sent
out an e-mail to all of his exhibitors explaining that he was pulling the
plug on this show. Todd had hoped that he would go back later and start up
again, after they had replaced the landlord. Just the opposite happened.
The landlord leased the space out immediately to another gun show promoter,
Darwin Bodecker, whom has the Texas Gun Shows. Darwin then has an October,
November and December gun show. And then on the Thursday before his
January gun show, Darwin gets a phone call to attend a meeting with the
building owner, the landlord's representative, 2 APD detective officers,
and 1 BATF agent, and himself. He went by himself, without taking a lawyer
or anyone with him at all, or even calling anyone for information. This
meeting was about a Nuisance Abatement Hearing, which can be called for a
smelly dumpster, or if you have pigs next door, for loud noises or if the
police department gets several calls about your property and only the cities
can do this, as the county can't call these meetings. So that is what this
was about. Over a period of 1 year, there was one phone call to the police
department, every time there was a gun show there at the building, which is
an HEB property. There at the meeting, the two APD detectives stated that
they could recommend a Nuisance Abatement Hearing due to the statistics of
these phone calls that were only on gun show weekends. The building owner
asked what they could do to remedy this situation. And with that, they all
participated making suggestions. Well, it appears to us that the only
problems we have are the private vendors selling guns in the parking lot.
Maybe, if we didn't have private sellers, and if everything was run through
a background check, then maybe, there would not be a problem. Long story
short, our gun show promoter said, OK, fine with me. He was not
intimidated, he wasn't threatened. The only person that was threatened, was
the building owner, with a Nuisance Abatement Hearing.
The gun show promoter goes back and puts an e-mail out to all of his vendors
Thursday evening, notifying them that all gun show sales for this show
would have to go through a licensed dealers only, and that the public would
not be able to sell any of their firearms to any private exhibitors either,
but that they would also have to go through licensed dealers also. That is
how she heard about this. So, on Friday morning, she and Charles Cotton,
her executive director, whom is a lawyer, got on a conference call with the
gun show promoter, just 12 hours later, and he said that is the way it is
going to be. Anyone that walks into the gun show and wants to sell a gun
will have to go to a licensed dealer, and Alice said her heart stopped.
Alice said that she has been doing this job as legislative director for over
12 years, and in a blink of an eye, these guys at a meeting, agreed to do
things that they have been fighting for a decade. How could you do that?
So, at the gun show on Saturday, he has flyers made, and he was handing them
out to everyone that comes in the door at the show, stating that any and all
private firearms sales were to be handled only through a licensed dealer.
People went berserk, and then Darwin started doing damage control. He
stated that he was intimidated, and that they had forced him, and he started
to rewrite history. By Sunday one of the table vendors, whom was not an FFL
dealer, demonstrated his orneriness, checked the drivers license of a
Mexican college kid, and sold him a handgun. Alice got blow by blow,
thanks to text messaging and videos on face book. The vendor was not
arrested, but there was BATF and Austin Police Department presence there at
this vendor's table, which got back to the owner of the building, which said
that he was through, and there would be no more gun shows in his building.
Here is what happened. Once Darwin Bodecker participated in that meeting,
and agreed to everything that they asked him to do, so he kind of took it
all away from us, of what could have been official oppression, or anything
that would have been legal grounds for a lawsuit with the city. Alice had
talked to every police officer involved, and then she talked to a lot more
people, and she knows that when all of these stories end up being the same,
she is pretty sure that she has the truth. Long story short, the gun show
moved to a defunct Target Store, and has not missed a beat, and it didn't
cost him a dime more, and they are back in business. The things that
concern her, though, are the questions that were not asked, such as, how can
you have a nuisance call, if you don't have a conviction? If you are there
investigating what she wants us to watch for are these trumped up things
like nuisance issues within the city. They can cause guns shows problems,
as well as they could cause gun stores problems. Also, she wanted us to
know that he is collecting money for his legal expenses, and he didn't have
any. Alice then answered a lot of questions from the membership, about the
new Texas Concealed Handgun laws, and then she thanked everyone for allowing
her to explain what happened.
Darryl thanked Alice for coming and told her to have a safe trip back to
Paige, TX.