Work with the BATFE--get ambushed by the Brady Bunch

The Brady Bunch is, of course, thrilled with Mayor Bloomberg's campaign to crucify gun dealers, and have jumped on board with their "Shady Dealings" press releases and "reports." They love to make the claim (without, as far as I can tell, ever backing it up) that "almost 60% of crime guns originate with only 1% of the Nation’s licensed gun dealers" (this statement, of course, even if true, says nothing about any illegality of the sale in the first place--but the Bradys want to make it a crime to sell a firearm to a person without using mysterious, supernatural powers to read the customer's mind and/or look into the future, to be sure that he or she does nothing wrong with the gun).

In their zeal to punish these allegedly "shady" gun dealers, the Bradys do not even bother to make sure they make a distinction between the "bad" gun dealers, and the rest of them, as Raymond Tanner can tell you.

When the BATFE approached Tanner, who manages Tanner's Sport Center (in Jamison, PA) for his father, asking him to be on the lookout for a known "straw purchaser," he agreed to do so--presumably knowing that for a gun dealer not to do exactly as the BATFE asks can be dangerous (unfortunately, so is doing what they ask).

Soon enough, in walks the felon (with a couple accomplices), and Tanner managed to stall the sale long enough for the BATFE to catch them as they left. This, however, was apparently not good enough for the Bradys, who featured Tanner's as one of their "Shady" dealerships.

This, predictably, was not good for business

"The phones started ringing off the hook," Tanner says. Some customers were outraged and threatened never to do business with the place again. Others called to say they couldn't believe it was true.

A call to the Brady Bunch netted an apology and a removal from their "report," but that hardly pays for the unfairly damaged reputation and the loss of business.

The civilian disarmament advocates of the Brady Campaign have clearly abused their First Amendment rights--perhaps it's time to look into placing some common sense restrictions on those.