In 2014, the Bundy family of Bunkerville, Nevada went head to head with the Bureau of Land Management (“BLM”) over the government’s demand to collect grazing fees from them. The fees, which stemmed back decades, were in excess of one million dollars.
The Bundy family refused to pay the fees because they said the U.S. government did not have the right to charge fees for use of state owned land. As a result, the BLM had confiscated the Bundy’s cattle and used physical force again them when the family tried to take the cattle back.
Supporters from all over the country, including armed militia, traveled to Nevada to help the Bundy’s recover their cattle. Armed with public support, the Bundy family called for the BLM to stand down and leave the area. But the BLM refused, and a physical standoff in the desert took place on a Saturday morning in 2014.
The event captured national headlines as guns from both sides were drawn in a nail biting protest held under a highway overpass in a remote part of the state, about two hours outside of Las Vegas.
Dennis Michael Lynch was there on that day with his camera. He was filming the event for a segment to be aired on The Kelly File (Fox News).
Many of the Bundy family members credit DML with saving lives that day when he approached the BLM at a time when tensions were high. “Are you really going to shoot these people?”, screamed DML to the BLM as they pointed M-16 machine guns at his face. “Please, allow me to approach, I don’t want to see this end in blood shed,” he pleaded.
DML’s persistence to find a peaceful resolution helped ease tensions and ultimately brought the two sides to communicate in a civilized manner. The protest ended with the BLM standing down and moving out of the location they had occupied for months. The cattle were returned to the Bundy family.
Two years later more than a dozen arrests were made, including the arrests of many of the Bundy family members, in connection with the events of that day in the desert.
DML received a subpoena from the U.S. District Attorney in Nevada months ago. He was forced to turn over his video footage, and he will be called to testify in the trial next week.
DML’s account of what took place that day can be seen below in the interview he held with Megyn Kelly.
