Virginia Gun Owners Forum - VGOF

So I am not sure how many of you frequent VA gun trader, but they posted a new user agreement yesterday. This is the part that concerns me.

http://www.vaguntrader.com/forums/ubbth ... Post151926

Privacy - Your IP address is recorded with your posts. Your identity will be given to the police, court, attorney or any law enforcement if they ask for it. Keep this in mind before you post. Private messages are stored in the database and are not encrypted.

So if I read this right, all a cop has to do is say I want the info on user DaffyDuck and they hand that info over???? No Warrant from the courts?

"Your identity will be given to the police, court, attorney or any law enforcement if they ask for it. "

YEP! That's how I interpret it!

Once more, a regular "attorney" can just ask for the info, without provaction, and get it according to how that reads.

Thanks for the heads up. I'll be avoiding that website like the plague.

Typically, law enforcement will secure a warrant before they "ask" in order to cover themselves later in court. It's that old "Fruit of the poisonous tree" thing.

I think this is just CYA on the part of VA Gun Trader. Maybe they got burned by someone skirting the law?.

They should change it to read "Your personal information, including but not limited to IP address and username, is subject to disclosure by warrant or subpoena"

or something along those lines.

"They should change it to read "Your personal information, including but not limited to IP address and username, is subject to disclosure by warrant or subpoena"

AGREED! I ain't playing that "WHAT IF...?" game.

Reverenddel wrote:Thanks for the heads up. I'll be avoiding that website like the plague.

+1

OakRidgeStars wrote:Typically, law enforcement will secure a warrant before they "ask" in order to cover themselves later in court. It's that old "Fruit of the poisonous tree" thing.

That only applies if they otherwise would be prohibited from doing so. E.g. things like Facebook, etc. are regularly searched without a warrant as they are public info. Same with cell records and such...as long as the other party is freely willing to hand it over, no warrant is necessary to search. It's like you consenting to allow them to search your car during a traffic stop...anything found it fair game because you consented. The change in user agreement now means that they can legally consent to give out your information without any further permission from you. I suspect they got leaned on.

We recently had a felon on the site working up gun deals. Not a good thing !!

Any advice of exactly how to word our rules are welcome. I'm no lawyer.


thanks !!

I'm not trying to be demeaning or insulting, but have you thought of consulting with a lawyer? There are at least a couple (User & ArsenalAttorneys) that are members here.

Yarddawg wrote:I'm not trying to be demeaning or insulting, but have you thought of consulting with a lawyer? There are at least a couple (User & ArsenalAttorneys) that are members here.

+1

I'd bet there would be even a few who would be happy to do it for free or for a nominal service exchange. E.g. linked from your site for NFA, gun friendly lawyer, etc.

VaGunTrader wrote:We recently had a felon on the site working up gun deals. Not a good thing !!

Any advice of exactly how to word our rules are welcome. I'm no lawyer.


thanks !!

If you had a known felon setting up gun deals, why couldn't LE get a warrant for the information? There's due process for a reason and I don't care for anyone who out of good intentions circumvents those protections for the rest of us.

gunderwood wrote: If you had a known felon setting up gun deals, why couldn't LE get a warrant for the information? There's due process for a reason and I don't care for anyone who out of good intentions circumvents those protections for the rest of us.

+1 It's nobody's business what I may or may not be purchasing, unless they have a lawful warrant for that information.