A gun show got shut down in Austin last month ostensibly because Austin police threatened to initiate public nuisance abatement proceedings against the building owner because some gun sales had occurred on the premises to persons who were prohibited from buying guns.
According to The Austin Chronicle, Austin police and BATF had been focused on the gun shows in Austin since mid 2009 which resulted in at least eight arrests of felons and illegal immigrants who allegedly purchased guns from sellers other than licensed gun dealers.
The current state of the law allows a gun owner to conduct a private sale of a gun to another person provided the seller is not aware of any condition that might prohibit the buyer from owning a gun. Occasionally a gun owner wanting to sell his/her gun might take it to a gun show in hopes of meeting a prospective buyer. This is what the anti-gun groups refer to as the "gun show loophole" because no background checks are usually done in such transactions. Many gun owners oppose a law requiring private transactions to go through a federally licensed middleman, because it would tack on another fee to the buyer's cost plus make a record of the transaction available to the government.
Follow the links below to thoroughly immerse yourself in the Austin issue, but one question not answered is how the alleged crimes were detected. Hundreds of transactions take place on any given day at a typical gun show, so one has to wonder how the BATF and/or the Austin police discovered the eight illegal transactions out of all the thousands of transactions that must have taken place during the time period of the investigation. Do you suppose they queried every person leaving a gun show? Or did they (shudder) profile their targets? With Austin being a sanctuary city it must have been tricky for them to pick out prospective illegal aliens.
Anyway, here are some links for you reading pleasure:
Austin gun show documents confirm promoter given ultimatum;
Austin gun show update: Interviews reveal bigger picture;
Guns, Property, and Public Nuisances: A North Austin Showdown;
Gun show owner, police at odds over recommendations Show owner says police advice heavy-handed.;
The Gun Show Myth;
Texas Gun Shows;
Saxet Gun Shows.
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