COOPERATE WITH A FEDERAL GUN INVESTIGATION, get badmouthed by the Brady Campaign:

You have to worry about doing business with the wrong customers. And a Washington lobbying group could post your name on its Web site, naming you as an arms dealer who caters to criminals.

Which is what happened last month when the Brady Center to Prevent Gun Violence released a report, “Shady Dealings: Illegal Gun Trafficking from Licensed Gun Dealers.” Tanner’s store was featured as one of the scurrilous.

What the Brady Center didn’t know is that the sale had been a sting, arranged in cooperation with the local office of the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives. . . .

A black eye for good behavior.

Oops.

A local newspaper ran the news from the Brady report on the front page.

“The phones started ringing off the hook,” Tanner says. Some customers were outraged and threatened never to do business with the place again. Others called to say they couldn’t believe it was true.

To their credit, Brady apologized. (Via Snowflakes in Hell).