Knox: "Family in jail for Holder's crime"

In the year and two months since the story was first reported that the Obama Administration had concocted a scheme to send U.S. guns across the border to Mexican drug cartels for the purpose of creating bogus gun statistics that would help it make a case for massive new firearms control laws, not a single government official has been forced to pay for his or her crimes. Eric Holder lied to Congress concerning his role in the scandal and has yet to face consequences. But innocent citizens have paid dearly.

Two federal agents were shot to death with the guns the government placed into the hands of Mexican criminals. Hundreds of Mexican citizens living near the southern border have been murdered with those guns. Scores of U.S. citizens in the region have also been murdered. And those firearms continue to show up at numerous crimes scenes in the American Southwest.

In addition, one family--gun store owners--has been sitting in a New Mexican jail for over six months without bail under federal charges for doing nothing more than cooperating with ATF officials in what they were told was a sting operation aimed at catching Mexican drug criminals.

Rick and Vicky Reese, and their two sons Ryin and Remington, owned a gun store in Las Cruses, New Mexico. They were all arrested six months ago on federal weapons violations and charged with selling guns to traffickers whom they allegedly knew would take the firearms across the southern border to criminals.

A judge ruled that the entire family be held without bail. A judge further ruled that the family could not be represented by the same lawyer, that each had to secure their own separate personal counsel. This will cost the family at least $100,000 in retainer fees, which they cannot pay due to the fact that the government seized all of their assets. And to add insult to injury, although young Remington Reese, 19, was slated to be released into the custody of his grandparents, a judge ruled that he must continue to be held due to a 'flight risk.'

But Remington suffers from severe health issues and thus, his 'flight risk' is very low.

Jeff Knox, writing at WND today, picks up the story:

While I don’t personally know the Reese family, I have spoken with a number of people who do, and the reports are almost universally supportive. The Reeses are by all accounts well respected and liked within the Deming-Las Cruces area where they had lived for over 20 years, running a successful gun store for the past 17.

Rick Reese had planned to retire from the business and close the store at the end of 2011 in order to make a run for sheriff of Luna County. Son Ryin was in the process of opening a store of his own in Las Cruces when the family was arrested. In fact, the ploy used by the ATF to effect their arrests was to call Rick and ask him to bring Ryin and the family down to the ATF offices to discuss Ryin’s application for a Federal Firearms License. The ATF office presumably has metal-detectors at the entrances, so it would be an easy way to ensure that the Reeses were unarmed at the time of their arrests.

But the bombshell evidence against the Obama Administration was contained in a nugget of information Terri Reese disclosed to the court:

Something else that came out in this hearing is the fact that Terri contacted the ATF about someone she suspected of engaging in straw purchases. It turned out the person she was reporting was working for the feds. The prosecutor dismissed the report as being a cover move by Terri after she learned that the family was being investigated.

Could this, then, be the real reason that Terri Reese is being held without bail? She pointed the finger at a thug that federal agents had used to conduct the Fast and Furious scheme.

Knox further states that the contrast between the manner in which the Reese family is being treated and the Administration's handling of federal agents and bureaucrats who lied, cheated, deceived, and committed crimes is chilling.

Holder simply moved corrupt ATF officials out of Phoenix and gave them cushy jobs in the Justice Department. Meanwhile, the lowly gun store owners who thought they were cooperating with the ATF in good faith sit in jail, and hundreds of others are dead.