Common Sense not a Requirement for Federal Law Enforcement

One of the more popular videos circulated over the Internet in recent years is the one of a DEA agent shooting himself in the foot during a gun safety lecture in an Orlando classroom. Well, the agent has responded in the great American tradition: He's suing the DEA for allowing the video to be distributed.

The Smoking Gun link has the video of the shooting. If you're squeamish, it doesn't look all that bad. The agent - identified as Lee Paige, tells the class "I'm the only one in this room professional enough that I know of to carry this Glock 40," he assures the class that it is not loaded, and then he skillfully and safely discharges the weapon into his foot, in a way that only someone skilled in gun safety can do.

Paige's suit says that the wide distribution of the video has caused him to be the "target of jokes, derision, ridicule, and disparaging comments." He writes that he was "once regarded as one of the best undercover agents, if not the best, in the DEA," and notes that he is no longer "permitted or able to give educational motivational speeches and presentations."

I would say that the widespread distribution of the video was necessary, but not sufficient, to have this effect. It was also necessary that he make himself the justifiable object of derision. Isn't there some requirement that federal agents have some cojones?