TFred
Regular Member
I'm surprised nobody posted Philip's update in the VA-ALERT, which came out around 5PM today. In the interest of completeness, I'll post it below.
TFred
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1. Update on Petersburg gun buy-up
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Today I talked with Brian Telfair, the City Attorney for Petersburg, about this weekend's gun buy-up (not a buy-back because Petersburg never owned the guns).
I've had good luck in working with Mr. Telfair before on an issue dealing with an outdated air gun ordinance. He is professional, courteous, and returns calls.
Mr. Telfair was aware that Petersburg cannot participate in any gun buy-ups without having an ordinance on the books authorizing such participation and that the City cannot destroy guns bought in such a program without first trying to sell them.
He told me that all the City was planning on doing was to have some officers at the event for security.
I told him that the gun-control group was most certainly planning on the City taking possession of all purchased firearms and that would mean the City would be participating in the buy-up. In turn, that would put Petersburg in violation of state law.
That struck a chord. Mr. Telfair is going to talk to the gun-control group to make sure they understand that the Petersburg PD is NOT going to take possession of any bought-up guns. The PD would only be providing security. (Any other locality whose PD accepts the guns for purposes of destruction would similarly be "participating" in the buy-up program and find themselves in violation of the law unless they had an ordinance in place allowing such a thing. The locality would still have to attempt to sell the guns before destroying them.)
I will be talking to Mr. Telfair on Thursday morning and will report back on what I learn.
There may be a dealer or two at the event offering better prices for the guns. Also, if any of you are looking to add to your collections, this might be a chance to get a nice gun at a really good price by making an offer to someone headed to the buy-up.
For now, let's see where this is going on Thursday.
TFred
*********************************************
1. Update on Petersburg gun buy-up
*********************************************
Today I talked with Brian Telfair, the City Attorney for Petersburg, about this weekend's gun buy-up (not a buy-back because Petersburg never owned the guns).
I've had good luck in working with Mr. Telfair before on an issue dealing with an outdated air gun ordinance. He is professional, courteous, and returns calls.
Mr. Telfair was aware that Petersburg cannot participate in any gun buy-ups without having an ordinance on the books authorizing such participation and that the City cannot destroy guns bought in such a program without first trying to sell them.
He told me that all the City was planning on doing was to have some officers at the event for security.
I told him that the gun-control group was most certainly planning on the City taking possession of all purchased firearms and that would mean the City would be participating in the buy-up. In turn, that would put Petersburg in violation of state law.
That struck a chord. Mr. Telfair is going to talk to the gun-control group to make sure they understand that the Petersburg PD is NOT going to take possession of any bought-up guns. The PD would only be providing security. (Any other locality whose PD accepts the guns for purposes of destruction would similarly be "participating" in the buy-up program and find themselves in violation of the law unless they had an ordinance in place allowing such a thing. The locality would still have to attempt to sell the guns before destroying them.)
I will be talking to Mr. Telfair on Thursday morning and will report back on what I learn.
There may be a dealer or two at the event offering better prices for the guns. Also, if any of you are looking to add to your collections, this might be a chance to get a nice gun at a really good price by making an offer to someone headed to the buy-up.
For now, let's see where this is going on Thursday.