anti gun and judicial corruption, and cronyism at its worst

customarmsguy · September 23, 2014, 09:07 AM

Hi all, I want to share this with every gun owner who will listen.
I'm close to a story that started as a local dispute, but now has larger implications. A friend of mine has opened a shooting range on a remote 1,400 acre ranch in Florida. It's pretty standard in the shooting range business for someone in the area to sue and make a public issue out of safety. Those cases are quickly resolved because there is so much good data available on range design, safety, ect. In my friends case a neighbor started by trying to influence the county officials against issuing permits. When that didn't work this neighbor sued to stop the range from operating. and that's where it diverges from your typical range opening hassles. The plaintiffs literally put on one of the most ridiculous shows in recent memory. I could bore everyone to death with very technical details explaining why the claims made are untrue and even impossible in some cases, but the real story is in what the judge did. The judge is a known democrat, who was previously removed from a case for showing bias to a political candidate. She allowed her courtroom to become a circus and granted the injunction based on nonsense that didn't even resemble real evidence. Her order forbid all commercial activity at the range, so everything was scaled back to charity events and marketing. There was also a wedding held on the property, but zero shooting or training by the public. After the plaintiffs got word that we were going to hold a free event for a local young republicans group they sued again claiming the injunction was being violated. At this point we begin to understand that the judge and neighbor weren't really interested in safety, their problem was that they had again failed to stop progress on the range's opening. The county permits were approved and it was only a matter of time before we were up and running again. So the judge tightened her order out of possible desperation or spite, we may never know. After admitting that the injunction wasn't really violated she asserted that she felt the owner felt contempt for the order, so she expanded it to bar any firearms on the property for any reason. She also said nobody other than the owner could enter the property, and that he wasn't allowed to market or even talk about the range in public. According to a very prominent gun rights lobbyist here in Florida the judge was going for the record number of rights violated in one order. Even the normally left leaning ACLU has weighed in on behalf of the range owner. This case may have started as a local dispute but is now emblematic of anti gun corruption, judicial corruption and cronyism at its worst. The main plaintiff has even reportedly offered the range owners family members money to join his suit against the range. I hope the shooting community at large will support my friend's efforts to combat this overreach.

g.willikers · September 23, 2014, 09:24 AM

Wasn't there some additional scandal about the plaintiff's association to the Florida Attorney General?

Glenn E. Meyer · September 23, 2014, 09:31 AM

An anonymous story without supporting documentation or references, links, etc. isn't really doing much for us.

Claims are made about motives, etc. which we cannot evaluate.

Thus, closed.

September 23, 2014, 09:07 AM	#1
customarmsguy Junior Member Join Date: September 23, 2014 Posts: 1	anti gun and judicial corruption, and cronyism at its worst Hi all, I want to share this with every gun owner who will listen. I'm close to a story that started as a local dispute, but now has larger implications. A friend of mine has opened a shooting range on a remote 1,400 acre ranch in Florida. It's pretty standard in the shooting range business for someone in the area to sue and make a public issue out of safety. Those cases are quickly resolved because there is so much good data available on range design, safety, ect. In my friends case a neighbor started by trying to influence the county officials against issuing permits. When that didn't work this neighbor sued to stop the range from operating. and that's where it diverges from your typical range opening hassles. The plaintiffs literally put on one of the most ridiculous shows in recent memory. I could bore everyone to death with very technical details explaining why the claims made are untrue and even impossible in some cases, but the real story is in what the judge did. The judge is a known democrat, who was previously removed from a case for showing bias to a political candidate. She allowed her courtroom to become a circus and granted the injunction based on nonsense that didn't even resemble real evidence. Her order forbid all commercial activity at the range, so everything was scaled back to charity events and marketing. There was also a wedding held on the property, but zero shooting or training by the public. After the plaintiffs got word that we were going to hold a free event for a local young republicans group they sued again claiming the injunction was being violated. At this point we begin to understand that the judge and neighbor weren't really interested in safety, their problem was that they had again failed to stop progress on the range's opening. The county permits were approved and it was only a matter of time before we were up and running again. So the judge tightened her order out of possible desperation or spite, we may never know. After admitting that the injunction wasn't really violated she asserted that she felt the owner felt contempt for the order, so she expanded it to bar any firearms on the property for any reason. She also said nobody other than the owner could enter the property, and that he wasn't allowed to market or even talk about the range in public. According to a very prominent gun rights lobbyist here in Florida the judge was going for the record number of rights violated in one order. Even the normally left leaning ACLU has weighed in on behalf of the range owner. This case may have started as a local dispute but is now emblematic of anti gun corruption, judicial corruption and cronyism at its worst. The main plaintiff has even reportedly offered the range owners family members money to join his suit against the range. I hope the shooting community at large will support my friend's efforts to combat this overreach.

September 23, 2014, 09:24 AM	#2
g.willikers Senior Member Join Date: September 28, 2008 Posts: 10,442	Wasn't there some additional scandal about the plaintiff's association to the Florida Attorney General? __________________ Walt Kelly, alias Pogo, sez: “Don't take life so serious, son, it ain't nohow permanent.”

September 23, 2014, 09:31 AM	#3
Glenn E. Meyer Senior Member Join Date: November 17, 2000 Posts: 20,064	An anonymous story without supporting documentation or references, links, etc. isn't really doing much for us. Claims are made about motives, etc. which we cannot evaluate. Thus, closed. __________________ NRA, TSRA, IDPA, NTI, Polite Soc. - Aux Armes, Citoyens