Why is This Bizarre 2004 Shooting Video Going Viral?

If I include the following quote in a story about an accidental shooting during a gun safety presentation, you can probably guess what the video below will show: “I am the only one in the room professional enough, that I know of, to carry this Glock 40."

If you said that the DEA agent who said those words would then almost immediately shoot himself in the foot, you were right:

The incident in the video isn't new -- it's from 2004. But the video is going viral this week because the agent pictured, Lee Paige, is suing the government saying someone within the DEA released it out of animosity toward him. The video, he claims, damaged his reputation, was an invasion of privacy, and is "highly offensive."

The case has been rejected by lower courts before, but now the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit agreed this week to hear his case.

One judge in the past said that Paige failed to prove that anyone withing the DEA leaked the video (an investigation hasn't turned up a suspect), although Paige says that those within the department are the only ones who had access to it.

“In order to prove [the government] acted willfully and intentionally, it is essential that Plaintiff identify the source of the disclosure,” Senior Judge Jack Shanstrom of Montana federal district court wrote in his December 2010 ruling.

“[T]here is no doubt that the incident is an embarrassment to both [Paige] as well as the DEA,” he added. “However, ‘highly offensive’ matters generally relate to the intimate details of a person’s life, sexual relations and other personal matters and does not generally include the present situation.”

The irony is that Paige may have taught his most effective gun-safety lesson the day he shot himself.