Local gun enthusiasts react to FBI surveillance at gun shows
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POCATELLO — If planning on attending a gun show in the near future, you might want to consider avoiding any national borders, specifically any Mexican-American borders.
According to emails reviewed by the Wall Street Journal, “Agents with the Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency crafted a plan in 2010 to use license-plate readers — devices that record the plate numbers of all passing cars — at gun shows in Southern California, including one in Del Mar, not far from the Mexican border.”
Apparently, the ICE and FBI think that using this new optic technology will assist during gun smuggling or similar investigations.
“The FBI uses license plate readers in limited circumstances in support of specific investigations and only if there’s a reasonable belief that they will aid that investigation,” said Sandra Barker, a public affairs specialist for the FBI’s Salt Lake City Division.
“FBI use of (license-plate readers) is informed with guidance provided that addresses privacy concerns.”
Though information could lead to criminal gun activity, using license-plate readers also obtains information on law-abiding gun owners, which ends up getting recorded, stored and registered.
Not only does that use violate the Second Amendment, but is also a violation of the 1986 Firearm Owners Protection Act, according to Gun Owners of America’s Erich Pratt.
After discovering this contentious use of technology, several local gun shop owners, gun enthusiasts and Second Amendment protection activist groups reacted in different ways.
“Obviously we don’t agree with it,” said Idaho Second Amendment Alliance President Greg Pruett. “If a citizen hasn’t broken the law, they shouldn’t be surveyed by the police, FBI, ICE or whoever is doing it. If they are looking for a car of a suspect they assume is trying to buy guns at a gun show, that’s a different story. But to just go to gun shows and start running everybody’s license plates is quite frankly a waste of time.”
According to Pruett, most criminals don’t go to gun shows to purchase firearms. They go to black market dealers or other criminals.
“You have to realize that most of the private sellers at gun shows own their own local stores and they bring their firearms to the shows,” Pruett said. “Overall, they are pretty cautious of who they sell to.”
Sam Laoboonmi, the owner of Sam’s Gun Shop in Pocatello, has been attending gun shows across the Pacific Northwest for more than 30 years.
“In the big cities and other areas, the FBI has been doing this for many years,” he said. “I’m not aware of any gun show loophole, and I don’t do anything illegal. I require the (Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives) forms on all of my transactions.”
Another local who frequents gun shows to purchase and sells miscellaneous items including reloading equipment or gun ammunition, Rick Cheatum, said he’s never had an instance where he purchased a firearm at a gun show from a dealer and had someone try and get around filling out the ATF form.
“I’ve never had it happen, and I’ve never seen it happen,” he said. “What I’ve found is that gun people are some of the most honest people you could ever do business with. They surprise me. I asked a gun dealer one time if he took checks, and he said, ‘Sure no problem.’ He had been attending gun shows for over 20 years and never had a check bounce.”
Cheatum added that in his experience, many gun shows happen at hotels, especially in this area.
“So you may be a guest at a hotel and how is the FBI to know that you’re not in a hotel in Idaho Falls or Pocatello on a Wednesday and on Saturday you’re going across the Mexican or Canadian borders?” Cheatum said. “Just because their car is parked there doesn’t indicate they’re patronizing a gun show.”
Pruett said you can go on YouTube and watch videos of people trying to make pretend purchases from gun shows while saying things that a criminal might and it immediately throws up red flags.
“They can tell when something isn’t right,” Pruett said. “There’s a lot of fearmongering really in regards to what happens at gun shows. I wish people would go and try to purchase a firearm at a gun show just to see what happens. It’s much more complicated than what people think. It’s just a huge waste of time and it seems our taxpaying dollars could be better spent going out and finding real criminals who are out there killing and murdering, rather than scanning license plates at a gun show.”
This article was originally published in the Idaho State Journal. It is used here with permission.