MSATO announce that their Operation Lock Down II, which will take place on the 21st to the 22nd of April, has been put in hold... "OP LOCK DOWN II is currently put on hold while being reviewed by the State Attorney. the State Atty is on vacation until next week so I don't expect to be able to use the prison at this time.

An 'upset member of the public' has been complaining to the State Attorney for VA about our event. They have not yet disclosed to me who the person is or what the actual complaint was. Unfortunately, in these times with school shootings and other anti-gun initiatives our sport/ hobby becomes a lightning rod.

So the only thing really accomplished was whoever the person or people are who complained to the politician in VA did was to bringing negative attention to an already difficult hobby sport that involves replica guns.

There are a few other locations in the VA area I can look into but at this late date it would be difficult for me to do site visit and get the paperwork completed.

At this juncture I have a feeling the politicians and lawyers who are now involved will most likely deny use of prison. I’ve said to many that it is always easier to say no to using sites then getting people to say yes. Because it is the VA State Attorney and State Reps involved I do not want to bother with another location in that state at this time.

I’m hoping we are not getting into another round of airsoft/ milsim drama now with people going to politicians and lawyers, but I find it hard to believe it is from outside. The best thing is to move forward and hopefully the drama and stuff is behind us.

My response is to provide an alternative location outside VA at this time.

I have been working on a location in Western NY State that I did not plan to use until OCT but I talked with the owner and he is willing to allow me to use it the weekend of April 20-22. It is a large location with multiple buildings. We would most likely limit the AO to 100 acres, it is much much bigger but for this Op the 100 will be fine.

The NY site is a former military site. It is currently used by LE for training.

I do feel bad for the players who took off time and spent money but this was beyond our control.

For players not interested in traveling to NY I fully understand and will process refunds.

Please make sure to include:

Date you made payment via Paypal.
Name on the Paypal Account.

I’m going to be doing site visit at NY location on Monday and will have pictures posted ASAP.

Sorry for the news but I have been dealing with State officials last night and today.

For all those who can hang in there and switch to this new site THANK YOU!

It will be a different Op but based on the AO it will go back to the days or Op Pine Plains and Op Climb to Glory.

Stay tuned for more info on new site!

Tom"