Went to my LGS to pick up cheap ammo & bam cops!!!!

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handgunfan101

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Went to my LGS because once a month they have a few people come in to sell ammo or showcase guns (usually showcase stuff and antiques ) A friend of mine and i went this morning after church this morning and started to pick up a bunch of cheap ammo and look at the "Classic wheel guns" they had for sale.

(Oh by the way i bought federal .22 ammo 550 packs for 4 boxes for 60.00 so i bought 12 550 packs pretty good deal)

We bought our stuff and went to the truck to put our stuff in there went back in Because my friend wanted to make an offer on an old colt wheel gun. as he was talking to the vendor local cops came in and were looking at licences of the vendors i guess.

Then they stood at the door and just made everyone nervous. Then they would walk up to a booth and just stair at people the place emptied pretty fast.

My friend and i were the last two in there and when he made the purchase one agent picked up his CPL and looked at it didnt ask to see it just picked it up. He got all his paperwork for the gun and we left. The store owner told them unless you have business here leave or i will call my attorney. They left!

Things here are getting worse. now LPDs are trying to crack down on vendors coming in from other states to sell there products because its illegal to sell some of these items in their home state.
 
Back in the 80s and 90s I used to work the gun show circuit all over our state and there were almost always 2 clowns from the BATF walking around looking at everyone. As soon as they would enter the building every dealer got the word and they never had a chance to bust anyone (they usually don't dress "right" for a gunshow). After a while we could look at someone and tell if they were trouble or not. But it pays to be careful and not assume anything.
 
In my area police & agents pose as dealers at shows more often than buyers or show-goers.

Was at a show with my FiL a few months ago and he was admiring some NFA hardware at one table, dealer quoted him a price on a rifle (M4, iirc) he was examining, and when FiL stated that he couldn't afford to get the stamp, nor wanted to go through the trouble to get one - dealer offered to write up the papers as a "civilian" model.

Hairs on our necks went up right away and we got the heck away from the guy pretty quick, but politely. After talking with a few of the show-goers throughout the rest of the day it became pretty obvious that dealer was an undercover agent or LEO. Everyone was avoiding him, guess he made the same offer to everyone:confused:
 
The store owner did good in OP. Having cops there doing crap like that borders on harassment and bullying. Not to mention the lost business.
 
@stressfire- That is messed up. Glad I read this thread, the gun show Is coming to my area in december, it'll be my first time attending. Good stuff to know.
 
At our shows the city cops wander through all the time and no body notices much except when they stop to price a gun or jaw about the good/bad of the model..had a problem with one cop who kept making snide comments about guns to the venders and owners. He has not been back as our shows are a private club and entry to LE's can be denied without a search warrant if it gets nasty. Never happened though most are good people. ATF wandered through for a while (and most likely still do as they busted an illegal dealer couple months ago) but anouncments went out over the PA same with anti gun group members who try to come in and screw something up once and a while...
 
This is pretty foreign to me. We have lots of cops, retired cops, cops at the door checking weapons, etc. at our gun shows. They enjoy it as much as we do. I think I'd just laugh if a cop tried to check my ID while I was looking or buying something at a table - that kind of thing would really be out of place here.
 
handgunfan101: ...now LPDs are trying to crack down on vendors coming in from other states to sell there products because its illegal to sell some of these items in their home state.
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If those "products" are firearms then the local PD wouldn't have jurisdiction...but ATF would, as the out of state "vendor" would be committing a Federal crime.
 
Everytime I have seen a LEO at a gunshow, he is usually chatting with someone about a gun, or general talk of hunting or what-not. I've never had a negative vibe or experiance from an officer.

Maybe I'm just lucky.
 
Thats sad. You figure they could be getting a crack dealer of the street, instead of harassing people. Maybe they should give up their firearms before they expect someone else to. I have been in gun shop before with local law enforcement present. I had the best conversations with them about guns....lol, and this was right outside of Chicago. I remember being at a gun shop that was doing a raffle for a free gun every hour, man that place was packed with cops Chicago cops, and Lincolnwood Cops, and we all had a good ol time. During this gunshop raffle, I was 22yrs old, shaved head, dressed like a youngen, and was not harrased once.
 
I'm unclear about the facts. Was this strictly one local gun store or did vendors come in and set up booths? Kentucky does have a transient merchant law that requires certain non-resident merchants to post bonds.
 
This is pretty foreign to me. We have lots of cops, retired cops, cops at the door checking weapons, etc. at our gun shows. They enjoy it as much as we do. I think I'd just laugh if a cop tried to check my ID while I was looking or buying something at a table - that kind of thing would really be out of place here.
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Thankfully, that's how it is around Dallas. I really haven't seen a whole lot of that nonsense going on, but I don't really look for stuff like that, I'm too busy looking for goodies at the shows!

What I don't understand is 'Why?' What would LEO's expect to gain from harrasing licensed dealers and such? As an established business there is about 1000 hoops they have to jump through just to open their doors, why are they wasting their time on that? Meanwhile, real crime is going on outside...
 
Then they stood at the door and just made everyone nervous. Then they would walk up to a booth and just stair at people the place emptied pretty fast.
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Sounds a bit strange to me too. Why would anyone get nervous with Officers hanging around? Is there a chance you might have watched one or two too many halloween movies this year? Seriously. Show me an Officer (even in the bluegrass state) who will just walk up to a random group of folks and just "stare", when they have the whole Terry v Ohio and all the other related rulings and PC requirements.
 
Sounds a bit strange to me too. Why would anyone get nervous with Officers hanging around?
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thats like saying why would you get nervous with a cop following behind you. even though you know you are not doing anything wrong it still puts you on edge, like walking on eggshells.
 
thats like saying why would you get nervous with a cop following behind you. even though you know you are not doing anything wrong it still puts you on edge, like walking on eggshells.
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The two things are not comparable. While you are driving a car, there can be any number of reasons an officer might find to pull you over: running a red/yellow light; not stopping fully at a stop sign; crossing the white line; driving too fast, too slow; not signalling; driving aggressively, etc. When you are looking at or purchasing a gun at a gun show, there is absolutely nothing an officer can arrest you for. Not unless you are a convicted felon who hasn't had his rights restored and your parole officer has someone tailing you. Don't tell me you're really afraid that the cop is going to say something like "Sir, I noticed that you didn't fill in line 16 of your 4473 correctly - you look like an illegal alien to me....."
 
There's usually cops at all our gun shows, and generally they're just customers like the rest of us. Most are quite friendly and I've talked at length to many of them.
 
Back in the 80s and 90s I used to work the gun show circuit all over our state and there were almost always 2 clowns from the BATF walking around looking at everyone. As soon as they would enter the building every dealer got the word and they never had a chance to bust anyone
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Unless the dealers were engaging in illegal activities, there would have been no reason for the ATF to "bust" anyone.

Criminals try to hide from the law; not honest merchants.
 
From what i am being told is that the local PD is not trying to harass the store or its customers. What was going on (i found out yesterday) is that they have some "vendors" come through without the proper legals in a row.

Also, a few store owners in the neighboring states are coming in and allowing straw sales. It is illegal to say the least but they dash in and out of different states its hard to catch them in the act.

My LGS owner has a long standing relationship with the vendors that come in and have never had any issues what so ever. He told me yesterday that he met with the police and talked it out. They apologized for the manner they came in and he agreed that if they want to come in just come in as plain clothes officers he has nothing to hide.

So it was all worked out
 
I can remember ATF agents going out of their way to harrass venders who had the book "Unintended Consequences" by John Ross on their tables for sale. Man they hated that book and one agent I talked to wanted the power to ban it. Needless to say we did not agree on that and jee whiz just had to buy my copy while they were there hassling a vender on his paperwork...but thats ATF is all about, cough - cough ---gun walking. Never had a problem with locals or even state cops.
 
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