County leaders wrong to ask store owner to remove posters

It’s hard to imagine what Nash County officials were thinking when they recently asked a Nashville business owner to take down some advertising posters from his shop window.

Responding to a pair of complaints about posters of women holding guns in the window of Nashville Guns, Nash County Manager Bob Murphy and Assistant County Manager Wayne Moore appeared at the store, asking owner Dennis Nielsen to remove the posters.

Nielsen refused.

Similar complaints were made to Nashville town officials, who verified that Nielsen was in compliance with the town’s zoning and sign ordinances and did not act on the complaints.

But county leaders were quick to act. And perhaps more chilling, Murphy reminded Nielsen during his visit to the gun shop that he rents his business property from the county — although Murphy later told the Telegram that Nielsen’s refusal to remove the posters will not affect his chances of renewing his lease.

It certainly shouldn’t.

This is not the first time that Nielsen has locked horns with county officials, having filed a lawsuit against the county in 2005 because copy costs the county were charging him for public records did not comply with state law — a suit the county settled out of court.

The county rightly decided to drop the poster confrontation altogether, leaving Nielsen free to run his business — and his display advertising — as he sees fit.

It’s unfortunate that it took the county more than a week to come around to that sensible conclusion.