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David Browne, a gun owner and attorney living in Henrico County, attended the Showmasters Gun Show on both Aug. 13 and 14 and agrees that the actions of both ATF and the cooperating law enforcement agencies should be examined.

"I think it certainly has a chilling effect in general," Browne said. "This was a targeted operation and officers were only sent to certain neighborhoods. I would hate to find out the hard way that I happened to live in what they considered to be the 'wrong neighborhood,' and then have my neighbors being told all these things."

The Henrico County Police Department also responded to a FOIA request from Browne with six pages of heavily redacted documents and a letter claiming that the obscured portions are "not subject to mandatory disclosure" under the Virginia FOIA law. The documents did contain language confirming that officers did disclose protected information about gun purchasers to their relatives in at least one instance.

"(Unidentified officers conducted) a residence check and were advised by the female purchaser's parents that she had no reason to buy a gun other than for her boyfriend," stated one mostly redacted email signed, "The Strike Force."

Gardiner believes such actions could result in lawsuits being filed against all of the agencies or officers involved.

"I think you would have an action against the state and local agents or officers for violation of your federal statutory rights," Gardiner said. "You can recover against individual federal agents for violation of your constitutional rights but not your statutory rights."

Any such litigation might provide a deterrent to future gun show crackdowns, Gardiner said.

"It's been my experience, because I've been involved in a fair number of suits involving ATF, that, if you sue them, you'll never hear from them again because they're the classic schoolyard bully. For everyone who fights back, there are ten people who they can intimidate so, if you fight back, they'll move on to the other ten," Gardiner concluded. "If you go after them, they'll leave you alone forever because they don't want to deal with people who aren't afraid of them."

Cybercast News Service has made more than a dozen calls to ATF seeking comment for both its original investigation and this follow-up report. To date, ATF has had no on-the-record response to either article.

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