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.

How many of the upper ST staff did gov Terry replace to get his own cronies in

quote:

Originally posted by DSgrouse:
How many of the upper ST staff did gov Terry replace to get his own cronies in

Probably every one he could replace he did.

Felons and straw purchasers at gun shows are not unheard of, guys.

I've personally seen people get perp walked, cuffs and all, for being observed buying a gun at a show when they're prohibited persons. From talking to LE I know, some of these guys are known to the police, some of them are arrested off of tips from dealers or booth patrons, etc. - but they do go to shows and sometimes they even get caught.

While I think the antis overstate this problem, it IS a REAL problem, and personally I could care less of an honest citizen was annoyed by a PD loudspeaker for a while. It's supposed to be intimidating, and if it intimidated some asshat druggie into not committing a felony at the show for the whopping cost of some noise pollution...then who cares?

I much prefer some juvenile scare tactics to more talk of closing loopholes and redacting the Constitution some more.

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

I'm caught in the middle on this one. There is likely a better way to do it then what you describe. However as above, we cant ignore that there are bad guys in most every facet of life and guns are no different. The felons just fuel the antis fire. I'm all about the 2A but there are people out there who shouldn't have guns. I think a happy medium would be for LE to be partners with the community and assist perhaps with free background checks and the like. YMMV

I was at that show yesterday. I never heard an announcement


About 10(?) years ago I was partially involved in an arrest/sting there

This was back before the Walmart replaced one of the buildings, when the show would be in both expo buildings


I had a gun I was trying to sell. Like most people back then, I bought a drink and sat down at one of the tables in the food area with my gun on the table with a sign advertising it. A guy wanted to buy it, and when I asked to see his VA DL to make sure I could sell it to him, he balked, so he sale failed

Fast forward, I still haven't sold the gun, have dropped the price, and he comes back around and offers me my original price for it. Same question, same answer, same result

Fast forward later, I sell gun, and am leaving and a plain clothes guy stops me, shows me a badge, and tells me I did the right thing not selling to that guy

When I get outside the center there is a commotion around a truck hauling a trailer with Iowa plates...several troopers, their cars, fairfax cops, etc. the guy who tried to buy my gun is handcuffed with 4 or 5 other guys, and I can see the trailer is full of guns

Apparently these guys went to gun shows and bought a bunch of guns from private sellers, and then resold them....don't know if it was back in Iowa, or to ineligible people, or what....but that has definitely stuck with me


That show sucks now to sell stuff at anyway....most of the buyers work or are dealers themselves and offer way way below what can even be remotely considered value so they can put it on their table....I had a buddy yesterday trying to sell an m9a3. I only saw 1 in the whole show at a dealer table, and it was listed at $1100. Only two people offered to buy his, with the highest offer being $500...both admitted they were offering that low so they could make a profit when they sold it used at their table....the bulk of private sales, at least in this area, happen via the web now, not at gun shows

quote:

Originally posted by Kevbo:
I was at that show yesterday. I never heard an announcement


About 10(?) years ago I was partially involved in an arrest/sting there

This was back before the Walmart replaced one of the buildings, when the show would be in both expo buildings


I had a gun I was trying to sell. Like most people back then, I bought a drink and sat down at one of the tables in the food area with my gun on the table with a sign advertising it. A guy wanted to buy it, and when I asked to see his VA DL to make sure I could sell it to him, he balked, so he sale failed

Fast forward, I still haven't sold the gun, have dropped the price, and he comes back around and offers me my original price for it. Same question, same answer, same result

Fast forward later, I sell gun, and am leaving and a plain clothes guy stops me, shows me a badge, and tells me I did the right thing not selling to that guy

When I get outside the center there is a commotion around a truck hauling a trailer with Iowa plates...several troopers, their cars, fairfax cops, etc. the guy who tried to buy my gun is handcuffed with 4 or 5 other guys, and I can see the trailer is full of guns

Apparently these guys went to gun shows and bought a bunch of guns from private sellers, and then resold them....don't know if it was back in Iowa, or to ineligible people, or what....but that has definitely stuck with me


That show sucks now to sell stuff at anyway....most of the buyers work or are dealers themselves and offer way way below what can even be remotely considered value so they can put it on their table....I had a buddy yesterday trying to sell an m9a3. I only saw 1 in the whole show at a dealer table, and it was listed at $1100. Only two people offered to buy his, with the highest offer being $500...both admitted they were offering that low so they could make a profit when they sold it used at their table....the bulk of private sales, at least in this area, happen via the web now, not at gun shows

Announcemnet by VSP was at beginning of show outside front entrance. It was only for a few min. and the loudspeaker was bad audio quality so it was not easy to hear.

There was also a short ann. inside the show about what constitutes and illegal gun purchase but the audio quality is so bad most people missed it.

quote:

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

Thank you my thoughts exactly. These announcements are meant to intimidate and associate law abiding 2nd amend. people with criminals.

I believe that the anti's would support these announcements and like to have signs outside the show saying that "here are the criminals."

PS a Vir Citizen Def League official was told by an anti gunnger at a panel debate he was on that CC permit holders should have to wear a colored armban so the rest of society would know who they are and can protect themselves from CC.

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.

quote:

Originally posted by SSAreGreat:

quote:

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

Thank you my thoughts exactly. These announcements are meant to intimidate and associate law abiding 2nd amend. people with criminals.

I believe that the anti's would support these announcements and like to have signs outside the show saying that "here are the criminals."

PS a Vir Citizen Def League official was told by an anti gunnger at a panel debate he was on that CC permit holders should have to wear a colored armban so the rest of society would know who they are and can protect themselves from CC.

I'm sure that these tactics came from the VASP leadership directly from our illustrious governor McAuliffe, a carpetbagger from New York. Thank goodness he only has a few more months to go, than he'll get the hell out of Virginia politics. As you may not know, he was Hillary's "Bag Man". Hopefully one of his dastardly deeds will come up and he gets indicted and winds up in jail. It seems like many of these anti and controversial politicians come from the northeast or other socialist strongholds and pollute wherever they go.
Our issue here in Virginia is the antis that moved to NOVA from Maryland and DC and skewed Virginia politics. The rest of the Commonwealth doesn't think or aspire like NOVA, except maybe Richmond and other Democrat controls cities.
Maybe time to move to Texas or somewhere else SOON!

NOVA is Northern Virginia (close to DC) to those who are wondering what NOVA means.

Too bad the ACLU is a leftist organization. IF it was watchful of Constitutional violations for ALL of us....this would be right up their alley.

What bullshit.

I'm sure the cop was ordered to do this and didn't take it upon himself to make his little speech. Still, it's odd and a little bit intimidating to me.

quote:

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.

quote:

Originally posted by jackimoe:

quote:

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.

Just because he is a Cop doesn't mean he can act like an asshole. Glad some one called his BS out. Thanks Ironworker!

Jackimoe I guess I see nothing that says asshole in any of that interaction description. your way off the reservation.
There is no basis for the State Police to have a loud speaker announcement in the entrance to any public event IMO.

I believe if it happened with me present I would write a letter to the governor and copy the head of the state police.I would express my concern about the integrity of the State police based on this incident and specifically if I were on a jury and a state trooper testified, I would have a difficult time believing the state trooper.

quote:

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.

Next time video it with your phone.

I was there all 3 days (had tables)

I did not hear or see a trooper outside, but did talk to a couple inside over the weekend,

for those that do not know, the VSP has a table set up in most shows, or are located in an alcove etc, and process some paperwork,
they will also process background checks for private sales for free (or it may be $2),,

on Trooper I spoke with Sunday said it had been a relatively quiet weekend, as far as prohibited buyers attempting to make purchases, compared to some in the past


also, if you don't like the announcements, then let the promoter know, in a nice way, and she can talk to the VSP,


FWIW, the most annoying announcements were from the politicians that felt they needed to win votes by barking over the loudspeaker ,, hard to conduct business sometimes when you cannot hear or have a conversation over the loudspeakers,

quote:

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

Sometimes, you just got to call a spade a spade.

Good job Ironworker!
If more people did what you did, the VA State Police might think twice about working so hard to lose the support of law abiding citizens.