When Project Veritas founder James O’Keefe went to buy a shotgun last August 6, an FBI background check barred him from completing the purchase.

O’Keefe came out swinging by quickly posting a video response that stirred up a lot of media attention. As he is the founder of Project Veritas, a nonprofit that uses undercover cameras and informants to uncover waste, fraud and illegal activity, he wondered if he had been blacklisted by the government as a punishment for his many video releases.

O’Keefe also filed a lawsuit against the FBI. According to the complaint, filed in U.S. District Court in the Southern District of New York, O’Keefe alleged that the FBI falsely claimed he’d been convicted of a felony and “has subsequently repeatedly, wrongfully and without justification denied Mr. O’Keefe the ability to purchase a firearm.”

However, the thing about this denial is, it’s much more likely this was simply a bureaucratic hiccup from a cumbersome governmental system.