As previously reported, last Sunday David Gregory held up what he described as high capacity AR-15 ammunition magazine, which would violate the District of Columbia’s gun law if the magazine were real.
My multiple attempts last Sunday to obtain a response from NBC News as to whether the magazine was real were met with stone cold silence. None of the three senior communications executives with responsibility for Meet the Press responded.
Now there is news via Breitbart.com (h/t Drudge) that the D.C. Metropolitan Police Department is investigating.
I spoke with Officer Alali, the spokesman on duty today at the MPD, who refused any further comment except to confirm that there is an “active investigation.”
It may be even worse for Gregory and NBC News. According to an e-mail received by The Patriots Perspective website, which originally broke the Gregory story, NBC News had inquired whether it was permitted to use the magazine and was told that it was not permitted. The authenticity of the email has not been verified.
Approximately two hours ago I emailed the same three senior communications executives at NBC News asking for them to confirm or deny this information, but none has responded.
I also asked MPD Officer Alali about it, and he said he could not comment on anything other than the fact that there was an active investigation. He would not comment on whether “customerservice.mpd2.dc.gov” “[email protected]” was a legitimate address or anything regarding the email and whether NBC News was warned not to use the magazine.
If it turns out that the information in the email is verified, this would change the nature of the incident from an unknowing violation to a possible knowing violation. While intent is not a part of the crime, it certainly may affect prosecutorial discretion if there were a prior warning.
Regardless of whether there was a warning, if the magazine were just a prop, one would expect a prompt response from NBC News instead of stonewalling.
Related: The importance of prosecuting David Gregory if he violated D.C.’s gun law
Update: Gregory’s exact words were “here is a magazine for ammunition that carries 30 bullets.”
Update 7:20 p.m. — As to the purported email from the MPD stating that NBC’s request to use a high capacity magazine was denied, I have not received any official response from the MPD, but a source who requested anonymity, but who I was able to verify as working for D.C. government, provided the following information: “… the Metropolitan Police Department email reply you received is genuine. DC Government uses “Intranet Quorum” software designed by Lockheed to manage general inquires. The email address and the subject line of the email you received are consistent with that software.” I will be following up with MPD about this tomorrow.
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Davey’s wife:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beth_Wilkinson
Well regarded attorney and has a background that includes:
Fannie Mae
In 2006, Fannie Mae recruited Wilkinson as parts of its effort to rebuild its relationship with regulators after accounting scandals and complaints about its corporate culture. Her compensation at Fannie Mae was not disclosed when she was hired.[7] She served as Fannie Mae’s executive vice president, general counsel and corporate secretary from February 2006 until September 2008.[8]
She resigned her position at Fannie Mae along with three other senior executives on September 19, 2008, after the troubled mortgage giant was taken over by the government.
Nahh, Barney said there’s nothing wrong with them, didn’t he?
What’s the chance of prosecution, of hubby, davey?
ZIP! (be extremely surprised, if a different outcome)
David Gregory,
You have a right to remain silent.
Anything you say can and will be used against you in a court of law.
You have the right to have an attorney present now and during any future questioning.
If you cannot afford an attorney, one will be appointed to you free of charge if you wish.
This is the the most important gun law case in the country. Wayne LaPierre said that the government is not enforcing the 20,000 gun laws already on the books. Sign the White House petition to charge David Gregory for violating DC gun law.
https://petitions.whitehouse.gov/petition/press-charges-against-david-gregory-possession-30-round-high-capacity-assault-rifle-magazine/gMNRPpPl#thank-you=p
Let’s make this one viral.
Unfortunately, the federal government doesn’t enforce DC gun laws.
Congress does but passed a law granting home rule. Under the “Home Rule” government, Congress reviews all legislation passed by the council before it can become law and retains authority over the District’s budget.
TITLE VI — RESERVATION OF CONGRESSIONAL AUTHORITY
RETENTION OF CONSTITUTIONAL AUTHORITY
SEC. 601. [D.C. Code 1-206] Notwithstanding any other provision of this Act, the Congress of the United States reserves the right, at any time, to exercise its constitutional authority as legislature for the District, by enacting legislation for the District on any subject, whether within or without the scope of legislative power granted to the Council by this Act, including legislation to amend or repeal any law in force in the District prior to or after enactment of this Act and any act passed by the Council.
Only the Feds can prosecute crimes in D.C., and since I know there’s been quite a few prosecutions of violations of D.C.’s gun laws such as Carl Rowan, we can assume they can if they so choose. Which means whatever the D.C. police recommend, Holder can sit on.
We currently run over 70,000 NICS rejections each year. Less than 200 of the thousands that were valid are prosecuted. All the data is right there in various BJS/FBI/DOJ reports.
The government’s own data damns them.
Wouldn’t mind seeing Gregory carted off to prison in handcuffs. Imagine this clown acting so better then the rest of us, not even knowing the gun laws of his own state. He doesn’t care about our children’s safety, all he’s interested in is weakening our second amendment rights. The Left thinks the government is the only organization that should be allowed to possess weapons.
How many of you remember Ruby Ridge. The government at its best, killing a mans dog, his son and his pregnant wife simply because the man failed to show up for a court hearing.
Do you remember waco? Another example of our government at its best. How many children did our government murder in Waco? Government isn’t the answer to our problems, Government is the problem.
Had we had a man in GOP Speaker position worth the air he is breathing, this would not stand.
Instead, we have a parasite, and it will stand — as will every dangerous outrage coming from the leftist media and the Obama government.
In addition to the ammunition magazine, there is the matter of obvious mental illness at NBC News.
Dave will use the “TV news magazine” defense.
The key to the beginning of ‘the great turnaround,’ is placing a man or woman in the GOP Speaker position who will begin the battle for our future, and carry it through.
Don’t be surprised if the magazine spring and follower are “missing” and the magazine is declared a dummy.
Exactly. This “investigation” is going nowhere.
Why LaPierre just sat there on his thumb and didn’t question Gregory on the magazine is another story.
Wayne LaPierre probably ignored the magazine, because to bring it up would have been “being confrontational”, which would confirm the bias already embedded into the NBC culture.
It also could have resulted in everything he said being left on the cutting-room floor.
But, besides all that, Gregory deserves to get slapped down on this at least to the same degree as Carl Rowen. He needs to be in court apologizing to the judge for his conduct, and writing a very large check.
It couldn’t happen to a nicer fellah.
“Gregory’s exact words were “here is a magazine for ammunition that carries 30 bullets.” That means that there was a follower and a spring.
Too bad LaPierre is a domain expert who can testify about seeing a follower….
I’ve only looked at pictures showing it mostly vertical, but I can assure you that’s a 30 round aluminum or steel STANAG magazine, originally designed for the AR-15/M16.
I’d better go buy a lottery ticket.
The odds of me winning the lottery are a lot better than David Gregory getting more than a sternly worded memo from his boss.
Actually, his boss probably congratulated him for doing a good job of stirring up the rabble.
“He would not comment on whether “customerservice.mpd2.dc.gov” was a legitimate address”
No response to PING or TRACERT
My typo, should be [email protected].” I sent an email to that address and it did not bounce back, which usually happens when the address is no good. That doesn’t mean, of course, that the email is legitimate
No response to PING or TRACERT from “mpd2.dc.gov” either.
My typo, should be “[email protected]”
OK, dc.gov would surely exist. Some mail servers don’t bounce bad addresses and just eat them quietly (as an anti-spam measure against brute force enumerative schemes to find out what valid email addresses they serve).
So we don’t know definitively one way or the other.
PurpAv, don’t forget that firewalls can be configured not to respond to either PING or TRACERT from IP addresses not in their whitelist.
Psalm 35, verses 7-9 come to mind when thinking of this whole affair.
NBC’s lawyers might be stalling because they’re trying to find a “journalistic privilege” loophole.
I bet they find one.
I have no doubt NBC will claim a 1st amendment privilege exempts them from DC law while they attack the 2nd amendment.
David Gregory should be held open to “Ass Needed ” cavity searches until the controversy is straightened up.
Correction : Should read. “As Needed “
I liked “ass” needed better.
what would be ironic is them claiming a first amendment issue.
that would kind of be using the Second to promote the First..
Right now the magazine is somewhere. Where and who has possession? Is it still in D.C.? Did someone take it out of D.C. and if so who and when?
How did Gregory get it in the first place? Where did it come from? There are a lot more people than just David Gregory involved in this. Any person who had it in his or her possession at any time within D.C. committed a felony.
Of course this whole thing is ridiculous, but it is not ridiculous because of the magazine, it is ridiculous because it is a ridiculous law.
Com’on now Professor, laws and rules are for us little people in America, they aren’t for liberal elitist MSM people like Davey Gregory.
David Gregory is the poster boy for white privileged. Anyone think a poor black boy standing on the corner with that magazine sticking out of his pocket would have a get out of jail card in his other hand?
David Gregory must demand that he be treated just the same as any poor black person would be.
Racist!
Stated perfectly.
We really have three sets of gun laws. One is for celebrities and politicians, who can hire bodyguards and lawyers to do as they please. The second is for middle-class whites who simply move to a gun-friendly jurisdiction and have a network of friends who will advise them. And the most punitive is for the working class and poor who are preyed upon by urban gangs and career criminals; should they try to defend themselves they are liable to have their lives wrecked and family disintegrated by a felony charge.
The reason this needs to be followed through is that this case puts lie to the notion that these regulations are “reasonable”, “sensible” or “common sense.” They are, in fact, highly punitive and pervert the course of justice.
David Gregory’s use of a 30 round AR-15 magazine as a prop on Meet the Press to support their national banning sure appears to be a pre-meditated violation of the law banning their possession in the District of Columbia where his show originated.
Gregory’s act exactly proves what opponents of such restrictions have been saying: such a ban will not stop a person hell-bent on breaking the law. If Gregory is not prosecuted it also proves other commonly held beliefs about liberal government and liberal media.
Advocates of banning magazines above a certain capacity ask who needs them. Putting aside that we tread on dangerous ground when we put any Constitutional right to a test of need (for example, who really needs to trample on the American flag?), the burden of proof is that the cost of such a ban will be justified by improving public safety. In an era of trillion dollar federal deficits, this raises a question of best use of finite government resources. If history is any guide, few people who already own any of the estimated 100 million such magazines in private hands can be expected to turn them in. Aren’t we better off allocating our money to improve school safety rather than fund a war on newly-outlawed firearm accessories?
I would remind people that while we are now having a “national conversation” on firearms regulations, we have yet to have a similar conversation about what changes we must make to the treatment of citizens with mental health issues, not to mention how we are going to fund any changes that we decide to make.
If we get down the road a few months on these topics and the loudest voices on the left still give the highest priority to funding the waging of a new war on firearms accessories, above funding improvements in mental health or school safety, we will know who the real ‘gun nuts’ are. And they won’t be the people with NRA bumper stickers.
I have an AR-15 and both of the magazines that Gregorie holds up are consistent with magazines that I own.
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We need to push on this. Alinsky rule 4 clearly applies here. We need to make them live up to their own rules.
We also need to push on the fact that the Rochester shooter was a felon, who was convicted of manslaughter, and still managed to obtain multiple weapons, despite very clear laws against them in one of the most restrictive states in the USA – New York. Criminals will break laws…and gun restrictions only stop the law abiding.
And… take pictures of the armed security at NBC and point out that the staff of NBC has more security than the average school. Alinsky…rule 4 might also apply here.
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