The Innocent Victims

A lot is made in the media about the innocent victims of crime–the child orphaned by a murder, the family burned out of a home by an arsonist, the woman raped, the storekeeper robbed.

However, when the innocent victim is a result of a trial by media, well now, that isn’t news.

Meet Brian Borgelt, former owner of Bull’s Eye Shooter Supply. Yes, the place where John Allen Muhammad and Lee Boyd Malvo, the infamous Beltway snipers, somehow obtained the Bushmaster AR-15 used in the crimes.

Guilty of sloppy record keeping, poor judgment in hiring, and possibly of failing to file Federal taxes (that one is still in litigation) Brian Borgelt is a poster child for what happens when you have been tried and convicted by the media for a crime you did not commit. Yes, Mr. Borgelt, has not been, and according to U.S. Attorney John McKay, can not be charged with a crime.

To me, one of the worst things is that we, the members of the “gun culture”, did not stand behind this man in his hour of need. When he needed support, it wasn’t forthcoming, because he wasn’t lilly white. His record was tarnished by a 2000 AFT audit for “poor recordkeeping”.

Read the article, and discover what happens when an innocent man is ruined by the media. Learn also the nature and the magnitude of our sin in failing to help our fellows. Learn from his misfortune, before it becomes your own.