The state is an interesting monster. It uses coercion to make individuals abide by its decrees and then lashes out at those who obey its decrees. There is no winning strategy. Take the shooting in Connecticut. Even though the state mandates federally licensed firearms dealers perform background checks on any sold firearms the state has decided to harass the dealer who sold the shooter’s mother firearms:
Federal agents raided an eastern Connecticut gun shop on Thursday, the same gun shop that sold one of the weapons used by the Newtown elementary school shooter.
Agents with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms, assisted by police, moved in on Riverview Sales at 4 Prospect Hill Road in East Windsor at around 5:15 p.m., reported Len Besthoff of CBS 2 sister station WFSB in Hartford.
Of course the Bureau of Alcohol Tobacco Firearms an Explosives (ATF) are trying to play innocent by claiming their raid had nothing to do with the Connecticut shooting:
All indications are Thursday’s raid was not directly related to the Newtown massacre investigation, but, as Besthoff reported, it was related to several other crimes committed at the store, including the recent theft of an AR-15 and the attempted theft of a .50-caliber long gun, both by a man with mental illness, Besthoff reported.
That’s a pretty shady cover story since both mentioned incidents involved individuals trying to steal firearms. In all likelihood the ATF is exploiting the Connecticut shooting in order to raise their status in the public’s eye. By raiding this shop the ATF is making it appear as though they’re trying to shut down the dealer that sold the firearms used in the Connecticut shooting. Reading the statements made about the shooting it seems the public isn’t interested in due process, they want to see anybody even remotely connected to the Connecticut shooter punished.
What’s interesting about this whole fiasco is that the store was legally required to perform a background check on the shooter’s mother. It was the federal government, specifically the Federal Bureau of Investigations (FBI), that said the mother was fit to own firearms. Considering this fact the shop owner shouldn’t be the victim of state harassement since the state gave the OK for the sale in the first place. As we know that’s now how the state operates though.