I’m kinda new to the whole story but as far as I can understand this has been going on for over a decade, Bundy lost numerous court battles despite his claims he has legal right to allow grazing on Nevada owned property and now the feds decide to swoop in. It would appear that the state of Nevada up to this point had no intention of enforcing the court action.....so if the feds are involved there is the strong possibility the Reid/Chinese story is true. Why else would there be excessive force? It seems like something is missing from the story. What event happened that made Nevada want the land back? How did this start?
The issue has several plots....near the are Gold Butte on land controlled by BLM. There is oil fracking leases near there, there is the Reid/China Solar Co wanting to build there on public land, and there are most importantly water rights that Bundy could lose if the FEDS are able to stop him from grazing on public land.
There are wild horse to deal with near Mesquite...and the desert tortoise the BLM claims is being harmed, which is nonsense since they have been killing them since last year due to overpopulation.
Several threads with links to articles on all of it.