David Gregory Proves Laws Are For Little People

[mudwhistle]

He was told by the D.C. police not to do it, but he did it anyway.

David Gregory chose to brandish a large capacity magazine on his show "Meet The Press" last week even though he was told by police he would be breaking the law.

He didn't care. He did it anyway. Now everyone is doing the media shuffle trying to keep Gregory out of court because they claim "He wasn't planning on committing any crimes".

Nether is 99.99% of gun owners but that never stopped them from being charged before. Why now make an exception for a liberal talk-show host?

This is, declared NYU professor Jay Rosen, “the dumbest media story of 2012.” Why? Because, as CNN’s Howard Kurtz breezily put it, everybody knows David Gregory wasn’t “planning to commit any crimes.”

So what? Neither are the overwhelming majority of his fellow high-capacity-magazine-owning Americans. Yet they’re expected to know, as they drive around visiting friends and family over Christmas, the various and contradictory gun laws in different jurisdictions. Ignorantia juris non excusat is one of the oldest concepts in civilized society: Ignorance of the law is no excuse. Back when there was a modest and proportionate number of laws, that was just about doable. But in today’s America there are laws against everything, and any one of us at any time is unknowingly in breach of dozens of them. And in this case NBC were informed by the D.C. police that it would be illegal to show the thing on TV, and they went ahead and did it anyway: You’ll never take me alive, copper! You’ll have to pry my high-capacity magazine from my cold dead fingers! When the D.C. SWAT team, the FBI, and the ATF take out NBC News and the whole building goes up in one almighty fireball, David Gregory will be the crazed loon up on the roof like Jimmy Cagney in White Heat: “Made it, Ma! Top of the world!” At last, some actual must-see TV on that lousy network.

But, even if we’re denied that pleasure, the “dumbest media story of 2012” is actually rather instructive. David Gregory intended to demonstrate what he regards as the absurdity of America’s lax gun laws. Instead, he’s demonstrating the ever greater absurdity of America’s non-lax laws. His investigation, prosecution, and a sentence of 20–30 years with eligibility for parole after ten (assuming Mothers Against High-Capacity Magazines don’t object) would teach a far more useful lesson than whatever he thought he was doing by waving that clip under LaPierre’s nose.

NBC television personality David Gregory created a firestorm of controversy when he defied DC's Gun Laws and brandished a high capacity magazine on last weeks episode of "Meet the Press".

We now know that members of his production staff contacted the DC Metro Police to get permission to obtain a magazine and illegally import it into the District of Columbia for use as a prop on the show. When their request was flatly denied, they claim they supposedly got permission from an unnamed contact at the Department of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms. ATF's supposed mystery man hasn't been named but if he really exists, I doubt he's willing to step into the spotlight.

I suspect that David Gregory's ego just got the better of him and he just decided to obtain a magazine anyway and the DC Gun Laws be damned.

After all, those laws don't apply to people like him. Those laws are meant for the little people who would otherwise cling to their religion and guns.

Links

Blog: Steyn on David Gregory's lawbreaking

Laws Are for Little People - Mark Steyn - National Review Online

David Gregory defies DC Gun Ban but Who are the Unnamed Co-Conspiritors? - Washington DC Government careers | Examiner.com

 

[mudwhistle]

I was shocked this morning to discover that Gregory was allowed to interview Obama on his show.

I had heard he was being put on leave until this blows over.

Guess the reports were wrong.


It all depends on who you are and who you know whether or not you can break our laws.

 

[mudwhistle]

 

[Oddball]

This is, declared NYU professor Jay Rosen, “the dumbest media story of 2012.” Why? Because, as CNN’s Howard Kurtz breezily put it, everybody knows David Gregory wasn’t “planning to commit any crimes.”

Lemmiesee....

Gregory asked the cops if he could possess the magazine to display it on MTP (possession of that item being deemed a crime), yet he didn't intend upon committing any crime, other than that of possessing and displaying the piece of hardware that he was admonished not to, because it was deemed to be a crime.

Like we needed any more evidence that the east coast elite media propagandist dickweeds think that we're all a bunch of dopes?

 

[mudwhistle]

It's clear that the fact that he asked and was told no that he intended on committing a crime, so the claims of his innocence are way off. The only way they could have claimed he wasn't intending on committing a crime is if he hadn't asked.

So how ironic is this?

One of the top anti-gun advocates on NBC commits the very crime he advocates against.

 

[Pogo]

I was shocked this morning to discover that Gregory was allowed to interview Obama on his show.

I had heard he was being put on leave until this blows over.

Guess the reports were wrong.


It all depends on who you are and who you know whether or not you can break our laws.

"Guess the reports were wrong" on programming -- but the reports of breaking the law were right? Nice to be able to select the story tools you want.

We only did this in 18 other threads-- neither the DC police nor any other police can give "permission" to bend a law. Therefore they weren't asking permission; they were asking opinion. And they got conflicting opinions, since another police opinion told them it was OK as long as it was empty.

It's basically a right-wing blogger's pipe dream. There is life outside the Bubble you know.

 

[Mad Scientist]

Media disdain for the David Gregory story - POLITICO.com