NBC is dealing with an unexpected legal problem after a segment by David Gregory, who displayed what he said was a high-capacity ammunition clip on “Meet the Press.” D.C. law prohibits the possession of high-capacity ammunition clips. This may have been a case where a picture — or consultation with counsel — might have been in order. There is no exception for the media in such possession cases.
On the show with the National Rifle Association CEO Wayne LaPierre, Gregory showed him the clip and said “Here’s a magazine for ammunition that carries 30 bullets. Now, isn’t it possible that if we got rid of these . . . if we replaced them and said, ‘Well, you can only have a magazine that carries five bullets, or 10 bullets,’ isn’t it just possible that we could reduce the carnage in a situation like Newtown?”
The predictable response from LaPierre was “I don’t believe that’s going to make one difference.” The less predictable response came from gun owners and gun control advocates who noted that the possession of such a clip is a crime. The D.C. law states “No person in the District shall possess, sell, or transfer any large capacity ammunition feeding device.” This does not require that the clip be attached to a weapon and does not appear to require that it have rounds in the clip.
The reported investigation could also ensnare those NBC employees who obtained and transported the clip.
I honestly believe that Gregory is not blameful and that the law should have some flexibility for news or artistic speech when the clip is empty of rounds. What do you think?
Source: Washington Post
My understainding is they were told “No.” before they did the segment. Should have not asked then could have pleaded ignorance.
Bron – With Photoshop, anything is possible.
Darren – Was there an echo? I think it’s b/c that, even while sitting on opposite sides of a courtroom, there are a lot of similarities between the players.
Too bad the resistance wasn’t as motivated, before they got locked into the ghettos. By then, it was just a matter of patiently going after them block-to-block, house-to house.
I would hope that we don’t wait that long.
First they came for the communists,
and I didn’t speak out because I wasn’t a communist.
Then they came for the socialists,
and I didn’t speak out because I wasn’t a socialist.
Then they came for the trade unionists,
and I didn’t speak out because I wasn’t a trade unionist.
Then they came for me,
and there was no one left to speak for me.
Martin Niemöller
Malisha.
So would the alternative just be to sit idle and let the Nazis escort everyone into the boxcar to die in an extermination camp? If everyone fought back with a vengence it certainly would have saved a great many hundreds of thousands.
Your position would be one that would be the case if nobody else joined in and defended themselves.
In my view it is better to go out fighting than to be executed on one’s knees. At least you have a chance of winning.
junction:
did Anthony ever have a 1 lb wiener in DC?
Malisha – So you’re saying there’s no difference between going out on your feet, or going out on your knees?
Bron – You’re right. Look what they did to Anthony Weiner…
Fabien P, about 5,000,000 of the 6,000,000 Jews you describe in your post would have nobody to shoot with their machine guns in Nazi Germany. Whom, after all, would you expect them to shoot? Let’s take a German man 34 years old with a machine gun and a job in an engineering firm and two kids in school and a wife who had a degree in teaching French but who was a housewife at the time his city began “selections” for the final solution. Whom would you suggest he shoot? Perhaps he should have shot the Gestapo agents who came to his home to register him and his family as “Juden” so they could be shipped off a month later? OK, let’s try that. He shoots down 6 Gestapo agents. Immediately the German Amy goes into gear. His wife and two kids are raped and tortured to death at headquarters and then the remaining Jews in town are herded into the local synagogue by tanks and more machine guns, where they are burned alive. Some of them, on the way into the conflagration, shoot some soldiers, but they also miss and shoot some civilians. There, does that help?
The idea that everybody has to be not just armed but also trained as a fighter and a marksman and a military expert is an idea whose time has not come and will never come. The solution to problems must graduate from, “I’m gonna kill you!” to something more predictable and less chaotic, if not more peaceful and less hostile. The addiction to the idea of killing our way to safety is our main problem.
giant soft drinks are OK but DC has a ban on hot dogs which weigh 1 lb or more.
Big Gulps are OK but you cant have a big wiener in our nations capital.
John
December 26, 2012 at 4:00 pm
Yup no hi capacity magazines & no soft drinks over 16oz, good thing he didn’t have a giant soda….
*****
I believe giant sodas are legal in D.C. Gregory can sip super-size soft drinks to his heart’s content in our country’s capital.
Glen Turner,
Nice to see your comment, Even a non-lawyer like myself could understand the point. Will be interesting to see if it is met.
Jason,
“Regardless of your position on gun control, there are few subjects about which journalists show a more consistent ignorance and incompetence at covering accurately.”
Rankings, rankings…… My favorites include almost all subjects. But for me tops is MIC “control and need of”…..
No doubt he violated the law. Good example of when to use prosecutorial discretion in not bringing charges.
Yup no hi capacity magazines & no soft drinks over 16oz, good thing he didn’t have a giant soda….
Like to see them prove that the magazine was in fact a high capacity one, maybe he had it ‘slugged’.
But then the bottom line is why bother with all this BS, when it makes no friggen difference at all!?!?
I don’t know whether “possess” is defined in that statute, but typically to “possess” something under the law means more than simply holding it in your hand and/or showing it to somebody. Some relationship similar to ownership has to happen.
I’m surprised Professor Turley didn’t pick up on this.
Black’s Law Dictionary Online definition of possession [http://thelawdictionary.org/possession/]:
“The detention and control, or the manual or ideal custody, of any- thing which may be the subject of property, for one’s use and enjoyment, either as owner or as the proprietor of a qualified right in it, and either held personally or by another who exercises it in one’s place and name. That condition of facts under which one can exercise his power over a corporeal thing at his pleasure to the exclusion of all other persons.”
The Legal Dictionary online definition of possession [http://legal-dictionary.thefreedictionary.com/possession]:
“Possession” is “[t]he ownership, control, or occupancy of a thing, most frequently land or Personal Property, by a person.”
I love the NRA. Are they perfect?? No, but they defend our right to self defence and our right to throw off tyranny were it to arise. I’m sure 6,000,000 Jews and 4,000,000 political prisoners would of loved to have had access to”assault weapons” in Germany. Some 70 years ago.would of been pretty hard to push them into gas chambers. The victims the communist purges in Russia and China would of loved to have an absolute right to state of the art rifles. Some 60 to 100 million people were murdered by those two governments. I see such a unhealthy phobia people have for inanimate objects they know little or nothing about. Again, the truth is a mad man with any modern firearm, revolver, shotgun bolt action rifle is unstoppablel by unarmed people.
Okay he and or somebody at NBC intentionally broke the law. Yes they called DC Police and were told not to do it as it was against the law. Now let them pay the price of breaking the law they are pushing. These people are pushing the police state so let them live under it. Would I as a traveler through DC be given a break even though I did not know the law? Doubtful… they need to pay the price for breaking the law just like anybody else NO EXCEPTIONS!
Please excuse my earlier typos. Voice activation isn’t always perfect. And the oops was meant to express what mister Gregory did.!
With zero evidence, the conclusion drawn by several here is that the head of the NRA, who probably knows the DC laws forward and backward, must have entrapped the poor journalist by planting a magazine knowing he couldn’t resist using it. That seems reasonable, rather than it being yet another journalist who knows virtually nothing about guns or gun law. Regardless of your position on gun control, there are few subjects about which journalists show a more consistent ignorance and incompetence at covering accurately. Jesus, I can’t stand the NRA in general and LaPierre in particular, but the rationalization going on here is amazing.
This is sooo ripe w/ irony. Of course, David “Howdy Doody” Gregory is an idiot. He proves that weekly. However, the same people who are so adamant about controls are willing to give him a pass. I am a moderate on this issue. Here’s my take. I don’t know enough about guns to know what type of guns, mags, etc. should be banned or controlled. I believe in the 2nd amendment. I know some of the gun people are kooky, as are the “ban all guns” people. Howdy Doody was doing a prop cheap gimmick. Prop comedians like Gallagher are as dopey as Howdy Doody. He should not be prosecuted, he should step aside for Chuck Todd, who deserved the job more than Howdy Doody.
Bron – Uh-ray, oh-ray…
Q: Was the alleged item functional/operational? If not, then it’s just a paperweight. Sometimes a cigar might just be a cigar, but for the purposes of the law, I think some proof that it was what it was purported to be, is the question.
But, that’s life inside four-ninety-five 😉