A settlement between Red’s and ATF

I would prefer the Feds ended up in jail and reimbursing Red’s for all expenses but I can’t complain a whole lot if this goes down as described:

An Idaho gun shop that went to federal court to keep the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives from stripping it of its gun license has reached a tentative settlement with the government.

Attorneys on both sides told U.S. District Court Judge Mikel H. Williams on Wednesday that they had likely agreed on how to end the case.

Mark Geston, an attorney representing Terry and Ryan Horsley of Red’s Trading Post, said he could not yet release details, but said the proposal would allow the Twin Falls gun shop to continue operating.

“I think everybody’s reached a cooperative and constructive agreement,” Geston said Thursday. “The judge said to have it finalized in 10 days and we’ll just do our best to do that. The agreement allows Red’s Trading Post to continue as a gun shop in Twin Falls.”

I tried to check out Ryan’s blog but Blogger reports:

Sorry, the blog at redstradingpost.blogspot.com has been removed. This address is not available for new blogs.

This is entirely speculation on my part but my guess is pulling the blog down is part of the settlement. Stepping even further into baseless speculation one could say it’s a sad day when you have to give up your 1st Amendment rights to exercise your 2nd Amendment rights.

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5 thoughts on “A settlement between Red’s and ATF

  1. It’s pretty standard to kill any blogs when settling a case. In most cases, they don’t help the blogger. We settled one case recently where the other side thought they were helping themselves by blogging sarcastically (and in fact libelously) about the case, some of our corporate officers, and me (the attorney). I advised everyone not to respond and just let the bloggers hoist themselves on their own petard. Sure enough, their statements and boastful claims on the blog came back to haunt them as our various strategies slowly came to fruition and the pressure arose. Eventually, they came crawling on their knees and we settled for a pittance (in lawsuit terms). But I made sure that the legal terms of the settlement shackled them so they couldn’t do anything like this again — and we got ownership of the blog.

  2. Does the store still have a web site, or did the feds manage to kill that advertising avenue, too?

  3. Never mind, I just answered my own question. Shoulda looked first!

  4. I got an e-mail from Ryan. He didn’t say it was for publication, so I won’t quote him. I initially had the same speculation about his blog, but I no longer do.

  5. I’m glad to see the store’s still up – I’ve been waiting to get a hat from them since just before this court battle started. šŸ™‚

    Sorry to see the blog go, but I understand why, if that’s the case. I’m not sure it was part of the settlement, though – methinks Ryan did it in his own best interests, to be able to somewhat put this behind him.

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