I saw on News 8 Austin about some gun show brouhaha:

The Austin Police Department said in the last year, eight people were arrested and convicted for illegal gun possession.

All of them were convicted felons or illegal immigrants, and all bought their weapons from unlicensed dealers at shows at the North Austin Event Center, on North Lamar Boulevard.

Now APD is making recommendations to crackdown on illegal sales at gun shows.

It’s not illegal for an unlicensed dealer to sell at the shows, but APD is urging promoters and property owners to require their vendors to have a license.

“There have been questions posed to us about whether or not we are trying to create new rules regarding the private sales of guns. We are not. We are just making recommendations to the property owner and how he can control the activity on his property in order to avoid ongoing violations of the law,” APD Detective TJ Vineyard said.

APD also recommends that promoters provide onsite security, so that sales are prohibited from taking place in parking lots.

So far, police said all property owners and managers have agreed to follow the recommendations.

So it looks like a case of demonizing gun shows as evil. Sorry folks, what’s happening here are transactions between two private individuals. It so happens that one of the individuals aren’t allowed to possess guns (or even be in the country in the first place). But is it the seller’s responsibility to check into this? Perhaps, but the buyer could be a good liar. You never know. If you don’t allow the sales in one place, they’ll just got somewhere else to do it. In the end the crimes won’t be stopped. I’m not saying this is good that this is happening, that criminals are getting into our country and engaging in illegal activity… but only that illegal activity should be targetted to stop.

But what’s really going on with this particular situation?

Posted to a mailing list:

For those not already in the loop, there has been some info posted on the internet suggesting that Austin PD and BATFE were trying to stop private gun sales at an Austin gun show. Here’s the explanation, according to Austin PD:

For the last year, BATFE and ICE (Immigration and Customs Enforcement) have been tasked with trying to do something to curb the movement of guns from the U.S. to Mexico. A number of guns seized in Mexico had been traced back to a particular gun show held in Austin. Therefore, BATFE began watching goings-on in the show, and started arresting illegal aliens and felons attempting to purchase guns. They did this by seeing individuals talk to FFLs, learn that they could not buy a gun without going through NICS, and then move on to non-FFL sellers, for example.

The property on which the show has been held is owned by Wal-Mart, leased by a grocery store chain, which sub-leases it to a guy, who sub-leases a portion of it occasionally to the gun show promoter.

Because enough felony arrests were being made on the property, Austin’s abatement laws were about to kick in. The grocery chain was facing potential civil and criminal liability, so it met with the show promoter. Austin PD was asked for advice on how to prevent illegal transactions. Out of this discussion, the promoter agreed to attempt to limit sales to only those taking place through FFLs. The promoter put together a flyer which “asks” that people (1) not sell guns except through dealers, and (2) not sell guns in the parking lot. The flyer was poorly worded, in that it “asks” people to voluntarily comply with verbiage that states a requirement by Austin PD and BATFE. That is what got some people cranked up on the internet. They saw the “command” verbiage, and paid less heed to the “ask” language. In any case, the promoter is entirely the source of the flyer.

A show was held this past weekend. Apparently, BATFE arrested someone in a situation said to involve a 16-year-old illegal immigrant. Austin PD says that it is its understanding that the grocery chain may have decided now to no longer allow the gun show on its property.

Howard Nemerov also has more information and analysis.

In the end, it looks like all the involved parties are trying to do what they can. They want to try to stop the illegal activity. They want to help law enforcement. They want to protect their properties (the property owner doesn’t want to get in legal trouble, the gun show promoter wants to keep the show going). Everyone seems to be doing what they can.

As with many things, everyone has their version of the truth and the Real Truth lies somewhere in the middle.

Hopefully the above contains many of the facts (and opinions) and you can make your decision from here.

Updated: More information coming to light.

Like I said, everyone has their version of the truth.

Updated 2: Receievd email this morning from the Texas State Rifle Association:

TSRA continues to receive reports that the Austin Police Department and the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives attempted  to stop all private firearm transactions at an Austin gun show last weekend.

This is due to a decision reached in a Thursday meeting attended by law enforcement agencies, property owners and managers, and the gun show promoter in question and resulted in a self-imposed regulation and not due to a change in city, state, or federal regulations.

Any such city ordinance could violate the state’s firearms preemption law.

The Texas State Rifle Association, in conjunction with the NRA, will continue to research and investigate this matter–including examining whether this venue was unfairly targeted as a nuisance by local police or federal enforcement agencies.

Please check your TSRA membership status and check your voter registration.  Keep both up to date!

Updated 3: NRA-ILA’s statement.