After months of anguished debate over mass shootings, gun control and Second Amendment rights, the Justice Department finds itself on the defensive after a training manual surfaced that suggests federal agents could face a firing squad for leaking government secrets.

The online manual for the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives — complete with a photo of a turn-of-the-century firing squad — was obtained by The Washington Times from a concerned federal law enforcement official, and it immediately drew protests from watchdogs who said it showed a lack of sensitivity to gun violence and the continuing hostile environment toward whistleblowers.

Does this surprise anyone? Attorney General Eric Holder himself stands charged with criminal contempt of Congress for withholding 90,000 documents related to the Operation Fast and Furious gun-running plot. This is merely the logical outcome of the culture of corruption that this Administration has embraced.