If David Gregory were not David Gregory
He’d already be in jail.
Now that the D.C. Metropolitan Police Department is on record that it told NBC News not to use the high capacity magazine in its segment with Wayne LaPierre, the big media is paying attention and taking this seriously.
TMZ is running interference claiming that NBC News was told by ATF that the D.C. Police said it was okay, but the D.C. Police say they were asked directly by NBC News for permission and that permission was denied.
The NY Times actually has a sensible and informative story on it:
In Washington, people who are caught in possession of the type of magazine that Mr. Gregory had can face up to a year in prison, said David Benowitz, a criminal defense lawyer.
“You would be arrested; you would most likely be charged with possession of an illegal magazine,” Mr. Benowitz said, adding that “depending on what time you were arrested, you would most likely be held overnight.”
Prosecutors and defense lawyers often work out a plea agreement in which defendants receive probation and have a misdemeanor charge on their criminal record, Mr. Benowitz said. If defendants have a prior criminal record or lose a jury trial, they could face a stiffer sentence.
Mr. Benowitz said the accusation from the police that NBC had asked for permission and then went ahead with showing the magazine “didn’t help Gregory’s case.”
Yeah, asking for permission is pretty damning when you ignore what you are told directly from the law enforcement authority and do it anyway.
Unfortunately, the otherwise great Greta has missed the point on this, Investigating NBC’s David Gregory? Really? Can we be any sillier?
We have so many serious issues of violence in this country — and even here in DC on our dangerous streets — that it is bizarre to me that anyone would spend (waste) 5 minutes investigating NBC’s David Gregory for this.
One of the problems with the ever expanding gun laws advocated by Gregory and others is that otherwise law-abiding citizens get caught up inadvertently violating the law, like this soldier on leave from Afghanistan, while criminals do what they please and powerful people don’t get prosecuted.
The guns laws, as presently constituted and as proposed, turn us into a nation of men not of laws.
What Greta doesn’t understand is that David Gregory isn’t being investigated because he’s David Gregory; if he were anyone else, he’d already be in jail.
(Created by Legal Insurrection via Quickmeme)
The double-standard being applied by the media to Gregory was ready-made for Iowahawk:
So the press has declared David Gregory not guilty by reason of celebrity.
— David Burge (@iowahawkblog) December 26, 2012
David Gregory can have and do illegal stuff because journalism. And because free speech. Also, because shut up.
— David Burge (@iowahawkblog) December 26, 2012
You can’t be prosecuted for breaking a law you support. #TheDavidGregoryLoophole
— David Burge (@iowahawkblog) December 26, 2012
@aoshq I’m less worried about the “gun show loophole” than the “talk show loophole.”
— David Burge (@iowahawkblog) December 26, 2012
According to DC gun laws, Gregory IS an actual criminal. MT @howardkurtz [reGregory] shouldn’t DC police be catching actual criminals?
— David Burge (@iowahawkblog) December 26, 2012
Update 12-27-2012 — Feds and media jump to David Gregory’s defense as race card goes missing.
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Comments
Rules are not applicable for elitist liberals like Gregory.
Its only for us little people of this country!
Just another example of,
Do as I say, not as I do,
Do you know who I am
You are subjects to be ruled by me, one of your betters,
http://spectator.org/archives/2010/07/16/americas-ruling-class-and-the
America’s Ruling Class – and the Perils of Revolution, by A Codevilla, July 2010,
Worth reading again,
David Gregory brandished a Liberally-Declared “Deadly Weapon Of Mass Destruction” at a guest on air, to wit: a 30 round AR-15 magazine.
If David Gregory is not prosecuted, anyone found in possession of such a device within DC Metro Police jurisdiction could claim prosecution immunity presidence by reason of David Gregory, otherwise known as the ‘David Gregory Defense.’
No doubt, the DC Metro Police lawyers are now on the horns of a political dilemma over that.
If not David Gregory, then whom? If not now, then when?
Next thing you know both David Gregory and his NBC accomplices and the brass running the DC Metro Police will have a White House Petition circulating to have them all deported along with that anti-constitution foreign national persona non grata, Piers Morgan.
Greta? Do you have illegal items in your possession by reason of the David Gregory Defense?
And I want to add, normally I like Greta, she goes after both sides pretty fairly.
She’s an idiot not to see the hypocrasy of this. If this was an average joe, he would be charge, but liberal elitists like David Gregory, the law and rules do not apply.
I read that ATF said it was ok, so long as it was empty.
And that would circumvent every gun law there is….
were it considered that anything that was not loaded was not subject to the law.
Heh. And that machete is only dangerous if it’s been sharpened…
It doesn’t matter what the ATF said. States (and the District of Columbia) are allowed to pass gun laws that are more restrictive than the federal laws. Unless that changes, DC is the final word on their own firearms laws.
Why Thank-you Sanddog!
On with the Prosecution!
Possibly this would serve to demonstrate the effectiveness of gun laws? Or their relevance?
I would never consider David to be any sort of threat…physically.. no, his threat comes from a distorted reality and a skewed ideology. He can have as many firearms as he wants, so far as I am concerned.
But then he had to go break the law.
Hope you’ll have time to follow up with NBC with questions like:
1. What was the name of the NBC staffer who contacted AFT?
2. Who at ATF indicated it was okay, and on what legal basis?
3 Did either party memorialize in writing, to the other, the(supposed) conversation?
Of course it would be surprising if you got a response. Wonderful that all your pressing on this apparently forced a TMZ.com “Plan B” defense strategy. Was TMZ.com the most credible organization they could find to carry their water?
[…] Update: The David Gregory Recursion: “If David Gregory were not David Gregory, He’d already be in jail.” […]
As Government expands, it seems that we’re going to be defined as either “ruling class” or “subjects”. Mr. Gregory appears to assume that he’s already a member of the privileged “ruling class”. I’d like to think that this will be an illustration of all citizens being equal before the law but I’m afraid we’ve already seen too much evidence that “some…are more equal than others.”
Here’s a well-known and relatively recent case of a citizen trying to obey the gun laws only to find herself handcuffed.
http://www.nypost.com/p/news/local/manhattan/pistol_whipped_at_wtc_1x32hgT52UNhxkP36ZYAgJ
Now, if only that magazine were a “Get out of Jail, Free” card.
Silly me. No need for that when you’re a member of the media, aka “The Beautiful People.”
It’s all about intent: “Oh, but Your Honor–that magazine was intended to demonize and ridicule private gun ownership!” The so-called “hate crime” is similar in which murder is murder except if you’re a member of one not-so-protected group who kills a member of a protected group…then your intent is assumed to be hateful and the penalty is more severe. D.G. will likely be forgiven because his heart is in the politically correct orientation.
Mention of “privilege” is apt. This is how Moe Lane put it yesterday:
“David Gregory thinks that he is protected by privilege – which, as Robert Anton Wilson once reminded us, literally means ‘private law.’ The DC law is absurd and inequitable; it should be repealed. But if it is not going to be repealed then it absolutely must be enforced equitably.”
http://moelane.com/2012/12/25/david-gregory-dc-gun-control
Here’s the quote from Robert Anton Wilson he’s referencing:
http://www.goodreads.com/quotes/314772-privilege-implies-exclusion-from-privilege-just-as-advantage-implies-disadvantage
What would the ATF saying grace over this do for anyone?!?!
This is a DC statute, not under ATF purview.
Sounds like ass-upholstery to me…
BTW, Mark Steyn commented today that David Gregory’s next stunt should be to exhibit a standard (non-high-efficient) incandescent light bulb…perhaps while seated on a 5 gal/flush toilet 🙂
If what Gregory did is ignored by the authorities, there is a great way (as publicity and to force the issue) to fight back:
Sean Hannity, Greg Gutfeld, Bill O’Reilly, etc., should then all bring the same, identical magazine and wave it around on air during their broadcasts … night after night … as long as it takes.
If one is free to flaunt the law, then so is everyone else.
Terrific idea. But I question the balls of Hannity, O’Reilly et alia to see if what’s good for the liberal goose (Gregory is clearly a girly man) is good enough for the conservative gander.
Not your best ideaer, there Luke.
Hannity and them have studios in Nuevo Ork. Not the same as DC…see?
That occured to me after posting that.
Well, they could arrange some special broadcast(s) from D.C. Shouldn’t be that hard to pull off.
How about a Million-Magazine-March around the Capitol building – each participant holding up a 30-round mag rather than a protest sign?
Love it!
Actually, Hannity could wave a magazine around and say something like “Here in Nuevo this is legal. When David Gregory waved it around in D.C. that was against the law. Does this make any sense?”
Yeah, asking for permission is pretty damning when you ignore what you are told directly from the law enforcement authority and do it anyway.
True enough, but I still want to know how that “illegal” magazine came into Mr. Gregory’s possession … and I seriously doubt that he himself went across the river and purchased it at some suburban Virginia gunshop.
Somebody at NBC’s Washington offices illegally transported that item into the District and I’d like to know who that person is.
MTP/NBC is one massive RICO violation.
Did anyone really expect Von Susteren NOT to close ranks to protect one of her own kind?
Leftist logic: make possession of marijuana legal; make possession of magazines illegal.
That dumbass could have held up a picture. I hope that the prosecutor makes that a part of his case [to show intent].
[…] Legal Insurrection points out the MSM is picking up on this. The Left (and according to LI Greta from FOX) […]
Maybe the NBC studio is a law-free zone.
I wonder if the police have searched David Gregory’s home for WMD yet ?
NBC’s David Gregory, the subject of a now-popular police investigation, is on vacation and will not host this Sunday’s edition of “Meet the Press.”
If David Gregory left the District of Columbia he crossed a state line, isn’t that possibly Interstate Flight To Avoid Prosecution – a federal crime?
NBC should change the name of their Sunday news show to “Meet the Felon”.
Many folks have conveniently forgotten Carl Rowan. He was a Black columnist for the Washington Post, who was virulently anti-gun. Then he shot, and wounded, a white teen age boy who was trespassing by swimming in Rowan’s pool. The gun he used was unregistered and thus illegal gun in DC. The gun had supposedly been given to Rowan by his FBI agent son. Rowan did stand trial, but the jury was hung–surprise, surprise–and he was never re-tried.
The Hypocrite continued to rant against guns. But, he proclaimed that he had the right to protect his property and his family.
Never even heard the story. Sickening hypocrisy, but par for the course with “journalists”. Thanks for bringing it to my attention.
Please allow me to interject a quote from Ayn Rand’s Atlas Shrugged:
[…] I said earlier, I anticipate no shortage of opportunities to justify my major award from […]
This thing needs a name.
I’m proffering:
Gaffed & Gregorious.
LukeHandCool (who would add, the MSM’s integrity was at the borderline … and now it’s dead)
Hey David,
Is that a bazooka in your lap?
Or are you just happy to see me educated by breaking the law?
Yahoo “News” is now running an item on the “Gaffed & Gregorious” incident.
http://tinyurl.com/csskbbl
Isn’t it ironic that Mr. Gregory could have brought a gallon Ziploc bag full of 5.56mm rounds and that would have been no problem, but some stamped sheet metal formed in the shape of a box with a spring inside causes so much hubbub?
Oh, what was I thinking?! Live rounds? He’d probably faint at the sight of them, fall down, and give himself a concussion…
No, that’s incorrect;
people have been prosecuted in DC for being in possession of ammunition for weapons that are not registered to them.
So, unless Mr. Gregory has a registered single-shot, or bolt-action rifle chambered in .223/5.56NATO, that ziploc bag full of ammo in that caliber would be a violation, for which he could be detained until arraignment.
Thank you for the correction. Obviously, D.C. gun laws are ‘way more stringent than I had assumed. (Good incentive to never live there.)
[…] Jacobsen at Legal Insurrection has relayed the latest turns of events in the David Gregory Meet the Press magazine brandishing […]
[…] IF DAVID GREGORY WERE NOT DAVID GREGORY, he’d already be in jail. […]
[…] me not as convinced as some others are that “Meet the Press” anchor David Gregory is going to jail over having an illegal (at least in the District of Columbia) 30-round magazine while […]
[…] » If David Gregory were not David Gregory – Le·gal In·sur·rec·tion […]
“Yeah, asking for permission is pretty damning when you ignore what you are told directly from the law enforcement authority and do it anyway.”
Well, “asking permission” is pretty pointless because the police don’t have the authority to grant it in the first place.
But more likely, what they really were after was a “legal opinion”–the problem with that, as anybody even marginally involved in the open-carry movement knows, is that the police are terrible at actually knowing the law! (Does this apply to realms other than firearm law? Beats me, but if they’re consistent then it probably does.)
Or, if the open-carry movement doesn’t light up your smile, how about the open-photography movement? Plenty of documented, completely illegal abuse of citizens photographing the police, in places where it’s completely legal to do so.
If David Gregory is not charged, wouldn’t it be interesting to see a mass protest of people openly holding empty 30 round magazines aloft, daring the DC police to arrest them?
[…] Jacobson at Legal Insurrection has relayed the latest turns of events in the David Gregory Meet the Press magazine brandishing […]
[…] he’d already be in jail. A soldier returning from Afghanistan was jailed under this law. https://legalinsurrection.com/2012/12…david-gregory/ Taxcutter says: Maybe NBC News should move their DC-area studios to Harper’s Ferry. How far […]
As law-abiding citizens we are expected to navigate the labyrinth of conflicting state laws regarding firearms and we do successfully everyday. Although many of these laws don’t seem to make sense to firearm owners we still respect them and abide by them everyday.
Firearms are used more often by law-abiding citizens for self-defense than by deranged criminals to commit horrible acts of mass violence. For several examples for the recent use of firearms for defensive purposes not typically reported by the national media please visit: http://www.equalforce.net and forward this address to others to whom this information may be useful. @forceequalizer
[…] David Gregory and PiersMorgan have both met the Alinskyite Right, and progressives in positions of power should take note. Both men are the targets of digital petition drives aimed at holding them to their own standards, and ridiculing them, invoking Rules 4 and 5 from Rules for Radicals: […]
[…] What Greta doesn’t understand is that David Gregory isn’t being investigated because he’s David Gregory; if he were anyone else, he’d already be in jail. […]
The scandal is not only that Gregory brandished an ammunition clip but there are even more important questions not addressed with equally serious legal consequences:
Who actually owed the clip?
Where did the person who owned the clip reside? MD or VA?
How did the clip get transported OVER INTERSTATE LINES? An illegal act in DC by itself. By private vehicle or the METRO?
If by the Metro, that was also an illegal act.
Questions, questions, questions but the professionals whose job it is to ask questions are too busy spinning.