10 Investigates Reporter Nathan Baca came to Columbus after working at KLAS in Las Vegas where he interviewed the Bundy family. Here is a look at his reflections after a shootout with officials in Oregon.

10 Investigates Reporter Nathan Baca came to Columbus after working at KLAS in Las Vegas where he interviewed the Bundy family. Here is a look at his reflections, less than a day after the Bundy's were involved with a shootout with federal officials in Oregon.

It's not every day a person looks through the scope of their AR-15, aims that rifle at a Federal employee, and lives to tell the tale. This man, and several others, lay prone on the high ground of a bridge overlooking a river wash in Bunkerville, Nevada, April 12, 2014. I covered the Bundy family standoff with the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) for the CBS affiliate in Las Vegas. With the standoff and shooting involving two Bundy brothers in Oregon this week, these are my observations from the field of the last standoff and the goals and beliefs of the men that held that bridge.

When a Nevada rancher called for help against a federal BLM roundup of his cattle in 2014, several hundred came to his Las Vegas area ranch to demonstrate, protest, and if necessary, confront federal officers. The federal cattle roundup was spurred by Bundy's refusal to pay grazing rights for federal lands. The Bundy family, including Cliven's sons Ammon and Ryan, contended that the federal government could not possess those lands and they could only be administered by individual counties.

Related Items

I had interviewed both Bundy brothers, Ammon and Ryan, now in Federal custody in Oregon. Pete Santilli, a Cincinnati radio show host, was also there. He was always in that Nevada camp, holding his iPad with a selfie stick, recording every speech, every movement, and the long stretches of boredom inside the Bundy ranch. He often questioned reporters live on Internet radio, including me. Santilli is now also in custody.

I vaguely remember LaVoy Finicum during the near daily speeches from Cliven's Bundy’s land to gathered supporters. He and his fellow Nevada and Arizona ranchers often camped just north of the small river and east of the road that ran through the Bundy ranch. He and others arrived in such a hurry to help, they camped light; Finicum was known as "blue tarp" man because he would often camp under one. Finicum was killed in the shootout this week in Oregon.

The armed men in Oregon use phrases uncommon to most. For them, the Greek phrase "Molan Labe" and the Latin legal term "Posse Comitatus" are watchwords that most of these protestors live by. Molan Labe: the phrase translated from Ancient Greek is "Come and Take It." This phrase was often spoken by men in the Bundy Ranch in Bunkerville while holding on to a semi-automatic rifle. I talked to many of the men following the Bundy cause in Nevada. This belief was the spirit that kept them encamped in the middle of a desert creek side.

The second motto, Posse Comitatus, is Latin for a group of citizens. The legal term comes from the Congressional Posse Comitatus Act of 1877. It holds that a group of citizens, called upon by a county government, may supersede the actions of the Federal government. This Act is often cited as the legal framework of citizen groups, from the Bundy movement, to the Sovereign Citizen movement, for the belief that local law enforcement can supersede the actions of federal law enforcement. The Bundy family and its supporters repeatedly called for Las Vegas area Sheriff Doug Gillespie to confiscate the facilities, equipment and weapons of federal officers enforcing the BLM confiscation of Bundy's property. The Sheriff declined.

We never knew the name of that man on the bridge pointing his rifle at federal BLM officer. Our news crews feared an imminent exchange of gunfire. County Sheriff's officers would later tell us they anticipated a bloodbath taking the lives of dozens on both sides if one hair-trigger mistake was made. But the image of that man holding the bridge was frightful to some, and inspiring to others.