The U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives has long been the target of whimsical heckles and opinionated challenges on a local gun shop dealer's Web site.

Now the agency can go there to find heightened criticism from a different posse: politicians, including some Republican presidential candidates.

Ryan Horsley, manager of Red's Trading Post, checks who visits his Web site daily. He also knows ATF agents do the same.

Horsley, who is fighting the ATF over his store's gun-selling license in federal court, has taken his battle over Second Amendment rights to another arena - the U.S. Senate.

"I don't want people thinking they're just doing it to Red's Trading Post," Horsley said about the ATF's practices against small shop owners. "It's what they're doing to gun dealers in general."

Horsley enlisted many Idahoans to protest the ATF to their senators, both of whom now say the bureau may be too aggressively pursuing gun dealers. As a result, Sens. Mike Crapo and Larry Craig put a hold on the president's nominee for ATF director. A third senator, David Vitter, R-La., has added a third hold on federal prosecutor Michael Sullivan, giving more fodder to Horsley's Web site.

"It's sad it had to be brushed under the rug for so long," Horsley said. "But I'm glad that it's finally getting addressed. It's reached a point where a lot of people have said, 'we've had enough.'"

Not all the Republican politicians that Horsley has contacted have given him a favorable response. And Sullivan, himself a Republican whose assistant promised Horsley months ago he'd receive a call, never responded.

Horsley, however, has woven in quotes obtained from politicians across all media into an overview. Before, it was a myopic fight over the fate of his store. Now it's a national debate that could shake up the political landscape that Horsley believes has allowed the ATF to revoke his store's license.

At least that's what GOP presidential candidate Fred Thompson is quoted as saying in an interview with Field & Stream's David E. Petzal, excerpted in Horsley's blog.

"I would … consider giving (ATF) a wider range of sanctions so that dealers' simple paperwork violations do not result in license revocations," Thompson told the magazine. "â€-Having a politically accountable (ATF) director, who is now subject to Senate confirmation, instead of a career bureaucrat should also help change (ATF) priorities and make the agency more responsive."

Could it be this is now a presidential campaigning issue?

Candidate Ron Paul is quoted on Horsley's blog as saying, "I don't even like the ATF." A spokesman for Paul wrote to Horsley that the federal regulatory government should not "harass" businesses.

Presidential hopeful Mitt Romney sent what appears to be a form response to pro-Second Amendment constituents, in which he falls short of commenting directly about the ATF. Rather, he notes his pro-gun stance as governor of Massachusetts.

Horsley says the ATF's tactics amount to a manhunt.

In addition to Horsley speculating about the ATF motives, he sees Democrats' support for Sullivan, like that of Sens. John Kerry and Ted Kennedy, both D-Mass., corroborates his view that Sullivan is anything but neutral.

Crapo and Craig said they will hold Sullivan's nomination until he further defines what they see as a targeting of gun dealers.

Cass Friedman can be reached at 735-3241 or cfriedman@magicvalley.com.