A Red's Letter Day

As I mentioned in a post comment yesterday, it's time to add our voices to those of Ryan Horsley in defending Red's Trading Post against persecution by BATFU.

WarOnGuns visitors: you know I never ask anything for myself, and you also know I never ask anything of you I have not already committed to. Please support this effort. Please write a letter to the judge ruling on Ryan's case.

Here are some basic guidelines:

Address your letter to:

Hon. Edward J. Lodge
Federal Building & U.S. Courthouse, MSC 039
550 W. Fort St., Room 400
Boise, ID 83724-0039

Please keep your letter respectful. The intent is to help Ryan, not anger the judge. Under no circumstances imply anything that could even loosely be perceived as threatening--if you do, you will be hurting Ryan, not helping him.

Please keep your letter brief. The shorter the letter, the greater the likelihood it will be read--or at least skimmed over. Keep it under a 500 word maximum, and fewer is better. If you need talking points, there are plenty of stories on this blog (Type "Red's" into the "Search Blog" box in the top left corner), but don't try to cover them all--pick a few main points and stick with them.

Here is my letter--excluding salutation and closing, it is 432 words. It is going into the mail as soon as I'm done posting this.

June 7, 2007

Hon. Edward J. Lodge
Federal Building & U.S. Courthouse, MSC 039
550 W. Fort St., Room 400
Boise, ID 83724-0039

In re: RED’S TRADING POST, INC. v. RICHARD VAN LOAN

Dear Judge Lodge,

It is apparent from recent actions by representatives of BATFE that they are attempting to do an end run around your recent injunction by cherry-picking minor infractions in their unmasked desire to close down a lawful gun store. As you found, ATF’s conduct in terms of “double counting,” and their calculated exclusion of mentioning audits where no violations were found, shows the agency is itself incapable of achieving the perfection they demand of those they hold power over.

DIO Van Loan’s assertion that he is the sole authority and determiner of what “justice so requires” is an affront to our system of open government with clear standards applicable to all, and most importantly, with checks and balances to prevent abuse. The concept is chilling, presumes authority over the rulings of your court, and allows for what we are seeing now: an apparent vendetta against Mr. Horsley for daring to exercise his First Amendment rights by telling the public of his experiences.

The infractions themselves are meritless reasons for shutting down a family business. We have no public safety issue here, no blatant and willful acts of defiance. Alphabetical vs chronological filings—the information is still there. “Y” and “N” instead of “Yes” and “No” on occasional forms—who in their right mind would maintain the meaning is unclear? Incomplete addresses? Complete information was maintained and on premises. Even the transaction with the resident alien showed a good faith attempt to establish proper compliance, and in fact, this was not a prohibited person and no harm was done.

I half expect Director Van Loan and his staff to write Ryan up for parting his hair on the wrong side, or for wearing the wrong color shirt on Tuesday. I don’t mean to sound facetious, your Honor, but I have worked for many years ensuring compliance with stringent government regulations across a wide variety of industries—from defense contracting, to pharmaceutical and medical device production, to medical practice management—and have never seen anything this intentionally petty and calculating, with but one goal in mind: destruction of the “insolent” who refuse to grovel, rather than public safety.

This is naked bullying and vengeance under color of authority, and I pray you will not tolerate it. Director Van Loan was correct when he stated in his amended declaration that his actions were applicable “not just with respect to Red’s Trading Post, but across the firearm’s industry.” But it’s not justice he’s pursuing, Judge Lodge, it’s judicially sanctioned approval of tactics designed to ensure intimidation instead of compliance.

Please don’t let him get away with it.

Respectfully,

David Codrea
[address, phone, email]

Please join me in this. Please ask other blogs to post on this, please pass the link to this post to your friends, and ask them to write letters and forward the information to theirs.

We can stand by and do nothing and let another gun shop go under, and watch the rest get intimidated, or we can each of us invest 15 minutes and a stamp.

Will you do this, and do it right now?

------------

UPDATE: I just had a "Doh!" moment. Reader JH reminds me this may be time sensitive, and suggests faxing is another useful alternative vs. snail mail. I agree--the court's fax number is (208) 334-9229

We're the Only Ones Fraudulent Enough

A former Sullivan County sheriff’s deputy pleaded guilty this morning to insurance fraud for allowing a man to crash her Jeep so the insurance company would pay.

Hey, Amanda. How nice to see you again.

[Via Declan]

[More from "The Only Ones" files...]

The Rudy Show

Looks like Rudy shares more than a gun control agenda with the Million Moms. He and his minions apparently respect the First Amendment as much as they do the Second.

[Via JH]

The Million Mom Show

They hold a public meeting in a public place to promote a public policy agenda, yet insist on dictating how any recordings of that meeting shall be used.

Plus, they show how classy they are.

My kinda gals!

Special guest appearance by Judas!

[Via Naked Shoplifter]

We're the Only Ones Like a Box of Choc-lits Enough

Mr. Kubasta, who has learning disabilities and whom family members compared to the title character in the movie “Forrest Gump,” has maintained a measure of self-sufficiency by holding a job at a Home Depot store and earning a New Jersey driver’s license three years ago, at age 39...

Mr. Kubasta, 42, was shot six times by the police on Sunday after ignoring a routine traffic stop in Garfield, N.J...

With "The Only Ones" you never know what you're gonna get...

[Via Declan]

Stop the Snuf...uhh...Violence

[Select "ABC7 Special: Stop the Violence" from video menu]

We have to deal with the availability of guns. We have to change the laws...

We have to change the laws and legislation and we have to go after the legislators who are being pressured by the NRA and other organizations to keep them from changing those laws...

We've got to change the legislation--maybe we need to change the Second Amendment. Maybe we gotta go back and look at that and say "Is this really what the fathers meant when they said we have the Second Amendment?"

...We need to do sweeps of the houses...guns have to come off the streets...

We're looking for common sense laws.

Nope--no legislation politicking there, Snuffy. No wonder Americans United for Separation of Church and State are hesitant to get involved. I mean, from the 501(c)(3) St. Sabina graphic in front of your mug, it's clear you're speaking as an individual...right?

The rest of this propaganda-fest is just sickening. A bunch of hacks and bureaucrats, who have failed utterly and miserably when given countless plundered millions to pursue their socialist agenda, proposing more of the same as the solution, and blaming everyone and everything except the system they have created to foster dependency, and allow individuals to abdicate responsibility for control over their lives and freedom. Proposing to register every handgun in America owned by those of us who are not out of control, and leaving us to the tender mercies of your street constituencies won't exactly fly in the heartland, folks.

And how about that ABC7? Fair and balanced, no? Could the moderators have looked any more sympathetic and understanding? I'm sure glad they listened to my suggestions.

When Justice So Requires

Yes, the BATFE is impressed with itself, no doubt. Take a peek at this Amended Declaration (www.jpfo.org/redsdec.pdf). Part of the suit Red's filed in an effort to save the business, this declaration is the sworn statement of BATFE agent Richard Van Loan. In Section 7, he references the phrase "...when justice so requires." This isn't the first time Agent Van Loan has said that. In fact, according to Horsley, Agent Van Loan has stipulated several times that he has ultimate authority "when justice so requires".

I asked Ryan Horsley about the missing guns referred to in Van Loan's declaration. His reply:

This inspection was in 2000 the same year that I had taken over management. My parents had just fired [a former employee]* for theft, right on the heels of the firing, we were audited. They went back about 20 years in their audit. In those years after my grandfather's death (after 1986) and when my Grandmother took over there were rumored numerous thefts by employees.

We still have a surveillance video tape in the back of [a former employee]* stealing from the cash register. Anyway they initially counted 25 missing firearms that had not been properly logged out of the A&D (Acquisition/ Disposition) Book. We were able to resolve 13 of them but the other 12 we were finally forced to declare as lost and report them to the Police Department.

It is important to note that since that time, there have been no missing firearms. All of the current findings have been for perceived paperwork glitches.

I'll be blogging more about Red's later today--I have a project in mind, but I can't do it alone.

* I have taken it upon myself to delete identifying information due to potential legal implications.--DC

Nah, No Politicking Here...

No wonder we haven't received a commitment from Americans United for Separation of Church and State.

I mean, it's not like Snuffy could have just used his name as an individual and left the name of his his 501(c)(3) corporation that receives tax-deductible donations off the political affiliation. And it's not like we haven't seen him and Obama scratching each others' backs or anything...

All these churches on the left--yet the biggest supposed noncompliance the Separatists could find to complain to the IRS about was this...?

This Day in History: June 7

United Colonies change name to United States