What If David Gregory Went to Jail Over His Gun Prop?

Meet The Press/Quickmeme
Alexander Abad-Santos 5,952 Views Dec 26, 2012

David Gregory is actually under investigation for showing a 30-round magazine to the NRA's Wayne LaPierre on Meet the Press this weekend, and the prospect of Gregory going to prison is actually making a lot of conservatives very happy. There's no get-out-jail-free card in this meme, as far as they're concerned — only a point to be made.

In case you missed Sunday's interview, Gregory concluded a testy exchange by showing LaPierre the same clip Adam Lanza put in his assault rifle for the Newtown shootings — the same kind that will be introduced for a ban along side assault weapons when the Senate returns in January. Gregory, of course, was doing this for dramatic effect. But he or someone on his staff could have been breaking DC's law on high capacity ammunition magazines by obtaining that prop. As Breitbart's Warner Todd Huston was quick to point out, the official law is DC Official Code 7-2506.01. Meet the Press is filmed in Washington, where these kinds of magazines get confiscated:

(b) No person in the District shall possess, sell, or transfer any large capacity ammunition feeding device regardless of whether the device is attached to a firearm. For the purposes of this subsection, the term large capacity ammunition feeding device means a magazine, belt, drum, feed strip, or similar device that has a capacity of, or that can be readily restored or converted to accept, more than 10 rounds of ammunition.

In turn, Politico confirmed that D.C. police say they're investigating the situation. And a representative for the Washington Metropolitan Police Department told ABC News that NBC had had asked them to use the magazine and were denied. "NBC contacted MPD inquiring if they could utilize a high capacity magazine for their segment. NBC was informed that possession of a high capacity magazine is not permissible and their request was denied," reports ABC's  Shushannah Walshe.  

Quite the technicality, you might say, but the conservatives blogosphere is very pleased, because Gregory, in their minds, will prove a point about gun control laws. These are the most popular of those points:

 If David Gregory doesn't go to jail, then he becomes a hypocrite about gun control laws:

David Gregory proves how strictness ≠ effectiveness:

David Gregory just proves how useless an assault weapon ban really is:

And well ... there's this:

There is also an official petition with 7,000-plus signatures to the White House asking for charges against Gregory. DC police haven't commented other than admitting that there's an ongoing investigation. And perhaps there's point to be made that this was made for filming purposes — you know, like a documentary. Not that that would make anyone happier. 

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