If Oconee County Sheriff Scott Berry plans to follow through on his promise to boycott Dana Safety Supply because the company has decided not to sell some firearms to the general public, he will have to change the procedures he follows for purchasing weapons.

At present, the sheriff goes through the regular purchasing procedures of the county, where state contracts control many purchases and where low bidders are selected if they can provide the product.

In addition, according to County Attorney Daniel Haygood, it is unclear whether Berry could do legally what he is threatening to do.

Berry would be requiring a private company to sell a product to a third party–in this case, the public–in order to do business with the government.

“That’s a real good question,” Haygood told me when I asked him last week if such a condition were legally defensible. Haygood said I was not the first to ask him that question. “I don’t know the answer to it,” Haygood said.

For more on this story, go to Oconee County Observations.