Try peeling the smile off Ryan Horsley's face.
A federal judge has - for now - given his family their gun shop back.
A federal agency revoked Red's Trading Post's right to buy and trade
guns again after finding the gun shop had committed errors in its gun sales.
But U.S. District Judge Edward J. Lodge ruled Monday that the Bureau
of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives had exaggerated and omitted
some of its findings used to justify revoking Red's license.
And Lodge granted Red's March 20 request to stall the ATF's sanctions
until he reaches a final decision on whether revoking Red's license was
legal.
"It was a great decision," Horsley said. "I am ecstatic. I was just waiting.
For nearly two months this has been exhausting."
Horsley, whose gun inventory had dropped from 1,000 to 160 guns, is
reopening suspended accounts - both on the distributor side and in
advertising. His largest distributor agreed to hold $200,000 of
merchandise while the dispute goes to court. Now, Horsley is
hoping his sales, which had reached their pinnacle in more than
70 years of business, will spark back up.
Lodge wrote:
• "The ATF speaks of violations found during the inspections of 2000 and
2005, but fails to reveal that additional investigations in 2001 and 2007
revealed no violations or problems."
• Some violations had been counted twice.
• "Granting the preliminary injunction would not place the public's safety
in jeopardy."
• Between the hardships Lodge's ruling would cause the ATF and Red's,
"the relative hardships tip sharply in favor of Red's."
Lodge's injunction grants Red's full operation status until Lodge makes
a final ruling at an unscheduled future hearing.
"I have been getting all these calls from distributors and manufacturers,
and everyone else, just congratulating us. You should see my inbox
right now," Horsley said. "Getting all our advertising back in place,
getting all our orders set, arranging - it's just kind of nuts. It's not
over yet."
