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Originally posted by jackimoe:

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Originally posted by Ironworker:
I was at the show this morning. Heard the cop start this. At first I thought the promoter was doing this over the P.A. system. Then I realized it was the cop in the police car. I walked up to his car. He ignored me. I tapped on his window. He put the window down. I asked him if he ever went anywhere else and harangued law abiding citizens. He said yes and put the window back up and continued with his harangue. I try to respect law enforcement officers. But today my contempt for the VA. State Police knows no bounds. I wonder if I came to the next gun show and he did the same thing and I held up a banner proclaiming him a statist pawn, if I would get in trouble.

You try to respect LEO's? Why don't you just go up and call him an asshole? Thats what you basically just did.

When you go to the shows, take a good look around you. I have personally witnessed multitudes of "prohibited possessors"(prior personal contacts) walking and shopping where they have no business. Sure, some cops are assholes but it's better to be in the company of assholes than filthy criminals.

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Originally posted by rock185:
OK, .02 worh from an old retired LEO. Such an overt and public action, with it's attendant potential for political ramifications, would not be authorized by a barracks/area/precinct commander without orders from the top. And that top person ultimately answers to the Governor. I somehow doubt this state police action is about scaring off criminals. Of course, that is the cover. IMHO, such action would only be undertaken to intimidate the public, and discourage attendance. Not that I'm suggesting that Governor Mcauliffe would ever use the State Police to advance his gun control agenda. Even though "We lose 93,000,000 Americans every day to gun violence". No,that would never happen

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Originally posted by SSAreGreat:
I went to the gun show at the Chantilly VA Expo Center on Friday and Saturday and observe the following:

At the start of the Chantilly gun show today. A few minutes before the start of the show while many people waited outside a marked state police cruiser pulled up in front of the doors. The state trooper inside his car started talking on his loudspeaker and made an announcement.

I am paraphrasing: "the VA state police is holding a free contest and the uniformed officers inside will select winners. Winners will be eligible stay of 30 days to 5 years in a concrete hotel with their own free clothing including underwear and an 8 x 10' concrete cell. Free meals will be provided daily that is certified by a nutritionist. The time you spend at this hotel is indefinite…” The trooper went on for several minutes it seemed and somewhere in his long speech he mentioned what would violate a gun.
He also mentioned that the states of DC (not a state), Maryland, New Jersey, and New York would be providing their own representatives to take you to one of their concrete hotels if one purchased a long gun that was not allowed in those jurisdiction. The trooper actually stated that if you were from 1 of those jurisdictions and you purchased a long gun that was illegal in that jurisdiction, the mere purchase of it even though it never left VA would be a crime.

It was very difficult to hear the trooper over the loudspeaker and he went on for so long I think most of the people missed the content of his talk that is the essential content about what violates someone purchasing a gun illegally. Later inside the Expo Center they did have someone make a similar announcement but it just stated that if you are a felon, convicted misdemeanor for a sentence of more than one year, domestic violence restraining orders, etc. one could not legally purchase a firearm and would be subject to arrest and prosecution. The announcement inside the Expo Center centered much more professional, was much shorter, and probably obtained the desired effect to give the information to people.

After the trooper spoke at one entrance he drove to another and started his long speech again. Loudspeakers in police cars are for short messages and are not the best audio but most people can usually understand things such as "pull your car over to the right hand lane" "this area is closed." I do not think he was effective by giving a long supposedly funny talk on violating gun laws.

Personally I was quite surprised to hear it and I thought it was a bit intimidating. The message was we know some of you are felons and we are going to arrest you today. To me it was like IRS criminal investigators setting up outside a conference for accountants and stating that we know some of you are violating the law and we are going to give you a free vacation to "club fed."

PS I go to gun shows from Richmond to Winchester to Chantilly VA and at several of them I have had negative comments made to me by state troopers working security such as what you doing with 2 guns or why did you bring 3 guns here today. It is a gun show of course and people do bring guns there for EDC and look for parts and grips and other accessories. I am getting the impression that there are a lot of anti-gun state troopers in VA. Whenever deputy sheriff subject me and at the gun shows to tie up my gun, they always want to ask questions about the gun many times give me compliments such as "..that is a nice gun. How does it shoot? I use 1 of those once when I was with another law enforcement department. I would like your gun."

For some reason Arst VA state police seem to want to challenge law-abiding citizens who are exercising their Second Amendment rights.

I have spoken to a few state troopers at Chantilly who call themselves "gun nuts" and are very supportive of the Second Amendment.

Have a nice day and thanks for reading my post.