Three people were arrested Tuesday on the New Jersey side of the Holland Tunnel when police found a cache of seven guns, some 2,000 rounds of ammo, and ballistic vests in their souped up vehicle.  Police allegedly pulled the car over because of a cracked windshield.  Once they saw a loaded pistol magazine inside the car, they had probable cause to search the entire vehicle where they found the treasure trove of weapons.

The three were immediately identified by name on news reports and online.  That's because their names were generic Western names – Dean Smith, John Cramsey, Kimberly Arendt – and didn't include any Muslim identifiers like "Mohammed" or "Hussein."  You could just feel the journalists salivating as they reported this incident.  Finally, they nailed one of those right-wing 2nd Amendment patriot types.  Now they are armed with the "I told you so" ammo they so desperately need to point fingers at Republicans and, with teeth gnashing, proclaim, This is precisely why we need the kind of gun control measures voted down by the Republican Senate this week!

What makes me especially uneasy about this incident relates to the vehicle's appearance and whether the verbiage on the outside of the car might have tapped into – even subconsciously – potential biases in the police.  If they can have built in prejudices about blacks or Muslims or women, can't they have built in prejudices against gun-toting 2nd Amendment types – especially when the administration yammers on and on about cracking down on domestic terrorists, aka right-wing Christians with guns?  I wonder if the large "We the People" motif on the windows, "Freedom Isn't Free" on the license plate, or the advert on the side of the car for "Higher Ground Tactical Indoor Shooting Range" in Pennsylvania had any bearing on the decision of police to pull the vehicle over. 

I have no problem with the arrest as long as there was, indeed, probable cause.  And if they were careless enough to be driving through the tunnel into New York City with all of those loaded guns in plain view, they were taking a huge risk. 

Who knows – maybe this did avert a potential terror attack by a home-grown lily-white domestic "gun nut," as this article calls them.  Maybe they were up to no good, and maybe their excuse of going to rescue a friend who had been kidnapped was hooey – although, ya know, it is so far-fetched that it could just be true.

Referring to the three as a "trio of gun nuts" is bad enough.  But we have to ask if these guys would have been pulled over in the first place had they been driving a plain black SUV or gray truck with the same cracked windshield.  And we are duty-bound to call out a press corps and government officials champing at the bit to release the names – demonstrating the glaring double standard we 2nd Amendment enthusiasts have to endure when an incident like this is juxtaposed with every attack on the homeland by radical Muslims since Obama took office, where readily identifiable Muslim names were withheld for as long as possible.  

Hold onto your holsters, fellow gun nuts – it's only going to get worse.