BATF Feels Threatened By A Blog

Now I'm a law abiding kinda guy. . .

But I have to admit, this recent issue about how the BATF "feels threatened" by a guy with a blog is one of the lamest stories I've ever read perpetrated by law enforcement in recent times. How stupid is this:

A team of inspectors from the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives fled an Idaho gun shop where they were inspecting sales records when they learned their actions were being recorded on a blog.

But wait, there's more inanity. The big, bad federal agents felt threatened by:

[The federal agency] notifies the court than an inspection of Red's Trading Post … was initiated on July 17, 2007. The inspection was suspended due to the threat to the inspectors' safety created by Ryan Horsley, the Manager of Red's," the court filing said. The filing documented how some unidentified person had taken pictures of the inspectors at work.

"At about this time, Supervisor Young's assistant from the Spokane office contacted her and advised that Mr. Horsley had updated his internet blog (http://redstradingpost.blogspot.com/) to include the information that ATF, and Supervisor Young personally, was at the store conducting an inspection," the filing said. So Young contacted others.

"The Director of Industry Operations, Richard Van Loan, agreed with Supervisor Young's assessment that the photographing of the rental car used by ATF personnel, coupled with the instantaneous posting on the internet of ATF's presence … posed a credible threat to their safety and was designed to harass and intimidate," the court filing said.

So. Documenting the facts of a visit by the BATF, with these fact patterns being documented by the store's owner, on a blog the store owner operates, is interpreted as a threat?

Taking photographs, from a position of which the photographer had a lawful right to be, of the G-rides driven by BATF agents, by a photographer who is "a 70-year-old man in a Hawaiian shirt who is balding (Sorry, Al) and has a broken foot" is interpreted as a threat?

And isn't it interesting that the fact patterns as portrayed in the blog are not at issue; it is the mere existence of the blog and the photos that are at issue.

First, take a peek at the horribly offensive and threatening Red's Trading Post blog.

Second, this appears to me to be a concerted effort by the government to quietly attempt to shut down gun shops and/or their owners.

Now, I don't typify myself as a nutjob because I happen to believe in the US Constitution's Bill of Rights:

Amendment II
A well regulated militia, being necessary to the security of a free state, the right of the people to keep and bear arms, shall not be infringed.

But I must admit, quite frankly, this just doesn't sit right with me. This doesn't sit right with me at all.

Because again, quite frankly, it makes BATF look like a bunch of whining, sniveling, crybaby pussies.

Do you think I'm being too harsh?

But -- if the shoe fits. . .

BZ

P.S.

By the way, in the photo at top, that just happens to be store owner Ryan Horsley with current FEDERAL Secretary of the Interior Dirk Kempthorne. Huh. Imagine that.