TexasCHLforum.com

Austin has a gun show. It's been moved from its previous location. The reasons for that are murky, but I don't think it was solely because of the Copeland incident. It does appear that Saxet no longer has shows in Austin. As Alice Tripp points out (in the Copeland incident link above), Saxet left Austin for reasons other than law enforcement or city of Austin coercion.

In October 2009, Saxet quit the North Austin site after problems with building management, not with the property owners and not with local law enforcement or the city of Austin. Saxet always expected to return.

Grammy wrote:

VoiceofReason wrote:One of the main reasons I like this web site is that members research stories like this rather than just take them as fact. The members maintain a high degree of respect for others plus Charles and the moderators do a good job of controlling radicals and troublemakers.

These things maintain a degree of integrity that is found on very few discussion boards.

I in now way meant to post an untrue event, I feel I have "egg on my face". I should have did more research. This won't happen again. I origingally saw the topic on GlockTalk, no excuses though.
Jim

You do not have egg on your face. One of the values of a community like this is that it is self-correcting. If you post something you believe to be true, there will always be someone who will do research to confirm or refute it. As a computer security professional I constantly get "is this true" emails from my wife and others who have received the standard forwarded stuff. There is so much stuff out there on the internet that it's hard to know what's true and what's not. You can hardly be blamed for having assumed that the facts reported where true. The folks that have egg on their face are the ones promulgating falsehoods. Not you.

Here's the problem that I see. Perfectly reasonable citizens get stirred up by false stories. They take to the streets in protest. All they knew for certain was that the gun show no longer was held at the location it used to be held at. Later, when the facts come out, they look like idiots. The anti-gunners use that to their advantage, painting all gun owners as clueless tools who can't even think for themselves and therefore should no be allowed to have guns. And another stake goes in the heart of mother liberty.

With freedom comes responsibility. It is our job to not only deflate the liberal balloons but also stem the passions of good people when the cause is not based on truth. Far too many people these days are completely driven by emotion and can be swayed to take really foolish actions by planting stories that have a kernel of truth but are clearly meant to inflame. The plan goes like this: a gun show no longer can conduct its business at a certain location, for perfectly valid and legal reasons. An individual who sold guns at that show is convicted of selling straw purchases, which he clearly had to have known he was doing. So someone concocts the story that the police shut down the show and arrested a perfectly innocent person. Details get added that make it more inflammatory. It spreads like wildfire on the gun forums and freedom forums across the country. And the anti-gun crowd sits back and smiles - more fodder for painting the pro-gunners as boobs and childish idiots who are really dangerous and shouldn't be armed. More fodder for taking away our freedoms.

When you hand your enemy ammo, he will shoot at you.

chefkristian wrote:

baldeagle wrote:Not to rain on anyone's parade, but a search of court cases for the Texas Western District Federal court for Copeland and ATF or just Copeland returns zero results. I also can't find a single legitimate news outlet that reported the story, including the Austin Statesman. A search for ATF at the District Court site returns numerous hits, most recently a case dated 3/11/2010 and styled PETER MORALES vs. LT. MARTIN. I'm thinking this story is either bogus or a lot of the details are wrong.

EDIT: There's also are no press releases in 2010 matching the details of this supposed case. There is also only one press release in 2009 that matches in very broad detail, the description of this case. Without something more definitive than blog posts and a radio station story, I'd say this story is bogus.

EDIT2: There's also no press release on the ATF site, and there are zero hits using the advanced search feature to find mentions of "Paul Copeland".

As posted in the TSRA WEBSITE

https://www.tsra.com/index.php?option=c ... Itemid=113" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

As posted on an Austin Talk Radio website:

http://www.590klbj.com/News/Story.aspx?id=1272077" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

The talk radio website has none of the details posted in the story linked by the OP. The TSRA story is dramatically different than the story linked by the OP. His name isn't Paul Copeland. It's C.B. Copeland. Furthermore, the TSRA version clearly shows that he knew or should have known he was conducting a straw purchase. The gun show has not been shut down. It merely moved to another location. There is no racial profiling component in either story you linked.

The original story is clearly bogus and intended to inflame. If you want to win arguments with anti-gunners, step one is to be honest. That story is clearly not.

Not to rain on anyone's parade, but a search of court cases for the Texas Western District Federal court for Copeland and ATF or just Copeland returns zero results. I also can't find a single legitimate news outlet that reported the story, including the Austin Statesman. A search for ATF at the District Court site returns numerous hits, most recently a case dated 3/11/2010 and styled PETER MORALES vs. LT. MARTIN. I'm thinking this story is either bogus or a lot of the details are wrong.

EDIT: There's also are no press releases in 2010 matching the details of this supposed case. There is also only one press release in 2009 that matches in very broad detail, the description of this case. Without something more definitive than blog posts and a radio station story, I'd say this story is bogus.

EDIT2: There's also no press release on the ATF site, and there are zero hits using the advanced search feature to find mentions of "Paul Copeland".