Bundy is a giant family in the area. I don't know this gent. The folks I know of (very slightly)over on the Arizona side, are always very gracious and friendly when I bump into them. As I said, they have been in the country a long time, with huge families, there might be 1000 Bundys within a 100 mile circle.
When someone decides to stop buying a hunting license to hunt, or a grazing permit, to graze publicly held land, you are asking for trouble.
This issue was settled in 1934 with the Taylor Grazing act. Private herds on Public land needed to get a permit, and be monitored for long term impact.
If the land had been homesteaded in 1934, this wouldn't be public land.
But it is public land. Bundy can no more graze it with out a permit than you can.
What do you think the locals would say if you showed up with a new hat, and 2 semi trucks full of cows, and moved in on the open range with out a permit?
On some level, this case is like an old fashioned union, holding a strike at the end of the factories life.
They want things to stay the same, but they never will.
Anybody who has set their life up, to succeed or fail, based on grazing cows on land that gets 6" of rain a year, has made a bad call.
It does touch a lot of buttons, about cowboys, and the government, and the old days.
thats why it is on the news, it hits those buttons.
Sycamore
