No anti-gun bias here, nosirree!
Found
this
news story on Fark, with the coveted “dumbass” label. Intrigued, I
read the whole thing. In order, the facts presented are:
- In a small Appalachian town,
- a dozen federal agents raided a local business,
- which had recently (2001) been declared "Business of the Year".
- They seized 170+ guns from the Army Surplus and Variety Store,
- and arrested the owner on charges of illegal gun sales in three states.
- They later raided his home, and seized another 30+ guns.
- They also charged someone else, who was already in custody for parole violations, as a conspirator.
- The other guy had prior arrests (but not, apparently, convictions) for allegedly operating a meth lab.
- Multiple "men on the street" are then quoted, carefully selected to give a mostly negative impression of the owner's character.
- Finally, it's mentioned that the store is a federally-licensed firearms dealer, and that the guns in question were prominently displayed, as one person puts it, "like a museum".
In other words, after carefully constructing the story to give the
impression that more than 200 crime guns were seized from a
dangerous lunatic with ties to illegal drug labs, the reporter ’fesses
up that they were just grabbing his public inventory and personal
collection. This is a legitimate action given the charges, but it’s
not evidence of guilt.
Is he a criminal? I haven’t the slightest idea. That’s for the jury to
decide, not some spin-happy hack journalist.