Just like everyone else this week, Meet The Press has been discussing gun control. And just like everyone else, they wanted to have some sort of image of what the actual devices they’re talking about looked like. But unlike everyone else, Meet The Press decided to not just show a picture of a high capacity magazine, but to actually have what appears to be a standard USGI-style 30 round magazine live on the show. A show which is filmed in Washington, D.C. where such things are a illegal. Here’s the specific law:

(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. The term “large capacity ammunition feeding device” shall not include an attached tubular device designed to accept, and capable of operating only with, .22 caliber rimfire ammunition.

Penalty for breaking this little rule is a maximum fine of $1,000 and/or up to a year in prison.

[source]

How much you want to bet the police don’t even look into it?

[Thanks to the guys commenting under this post for the tip]

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68 COMMENTS

  1. Gun control advocates continually ask why the NRA refuses to compromise. The answer is quite simple:

    None is being offered.

    Instead, what are being offered are “terms of surrender”. Gun ban advocates somehow see their gun ban demands as an offer. They really haven’t put anything on the table. They want a ten round limit. How come they don’t offer say, national right to carry concealed reciprocity, and federal preemption regarding concealed carry as compromise?

    If they demand a ten round limit, and we want thirty, why isn’t 20 a compromise? We want zero specific gun types banned. Senator Feinstine wants 200 types banned. Can’t we compromise by banning 100 types?

    Because compromise isn’t what they want. They demand capitualtion, utter, and complete. So they just ought to drop the pretense. They want them all. They demand their way. They will accept nothing less, therefore there will never be “compromise”. And the anti-gun advocacy stands alone in ensuring that compromise never happens.

    Nothing in my post should be taken to mean I’m willing to compromise on anything. I’m just pointing out that the anti-gun lynch mob considers what they are willing to let us have as “compromise.”

    • Since when are legislators required to “compromise” or even “negotiate” with non-legislators? The NRA is a lobbying organization, not legislators, and have no place at the table.

  5. Would have been a perfect point for LaPierre to demonstrate the ineffectiveness of high-cap magazine bans… “Didn’t prevent you from holding that one, did it?”

    • Touche. This would be worth pursuing just to identify where he got the mag. Not that I would like trouble for any individual who might have provided it.

  6. How did he get that evil magazine? Someone call DC police at once:clearly his possession of a 30 round magazine represents a danger to the security of the people and the elected members of DC government!

  7. While I don’t believe any capacity magazine should be limited in any form, I would love to see that guy arrested. I wish Wayne had picked up on the same thing that you guys did and brought to his attention on national TV as another example of why we don’t need more laws, but more prosecutions. Would have enjoyed seeing David squirm in his seat.

  11. Anyone call the police yet or file a police report? I’m sure we would all be interested in their response.

  12. It seems to me a great opportunity has been lost here. Had it actually been pointed out on the air that Gregory had just inadvertently broken the law, by doing something seemingly so innocuous, it would have underscored the real effect of these laws – that of turning unsuspecting citizens into accidental criminals by making them walk a minefield of arbitrary rules.

    • NO.

      I REFUSE to support the prosecution of David Gregory or anyone else for breaking an asinine law like this.

      I completely endorse bringing attention to the hypocrisy surrounding this, but let’s not lose our principles along the way, eh?

        • It’s a stupid law, yes. But they would prosecute an ordinary citizen for having one of those mags, so why should Gregory be treated differently?

          Is there an exemption for cops? I don’t know, but my guess is that even in DC at least some LEOs would be allowed to have 30 round mags, and that’s where he got one.

      • Mine is signature #153.

        Here’s the thing – this fellow broke a gun law when he had no specific violent intention. I hope he does get prosecuted. That way, he can see first hand what it’s like to run afoul of stupid gun laws.

        • @Alphageek

          Well, maybe so, but I hope I’m among friends here. And the folks I work with are aware of my AR – enthusiasm. I’ve helped a lot of people buy them, and will continue to do so.

        • Looks like the petition site only discloses your first name and last initial. Not nearly as public as many petition sites I’ve seen.

  17. The magazine was probably grandfathered in – just like CA I believe. It’s an unenforceable law though because you can’t differentiate between pre-ban and post-ban magazines.

    • So you want to say that David is a gun owner, owns an AR style rifle and has had large capacity magazines all along? Because simply getting one from a friend assuming that friend isn’t present is still breaking the law.

    • Post-ban full size mags made from 1994-2004 were supposed to be stamped “for law enforcement/military use only.” There was no such stamp before and after. But there are a lot of ways to tell when a mag was made.

  18. Not only that, but while Gregory mocked the NRA all show long, the NBC host would go on the rest of the segment to suggest that armed guards might not be effective in preventing mass murders at school. Which is perhaps an interesting theoretical argument.

    But when it comes to Gregory’s own kids, however, they are secured every school day by armed guards.

    The Gregory children go to school with the children of President Barack Obama, according to the Washington Post. That school is the co-ed Quaker school Sidwell Friends.

    According to a scan of the school’s online faculty-staff directory, Sidwell has a security department made up of at least 11 people. Many of those are police officers, who are presumably armed.

    Moreover, with the Obama kids in attendance, there is a secret service presence at the institution, as well.

  20. We should all be thankful that somehow this evil magazine was able to restrain itself while making a TV appearance and not jump up and kill dozens of people all on its own, as we know standard cap (30 rounds is not hi cap in an AR platform, it is the standard) magazines are want to do without warning.

    • Hate to quibble LTC F, but when the m16 was first put into service the standard capacity mag was 20 rounds. Even when I came into service we had much more 20 rounders available than 30 rounders.

      I saw a history channel interview with Stoner where he remarked that the 30 round mag was a dierect response to the troops encountering the AK with its 30 round mags in Viet Nam.

      • i was under the impression that the 20 was in response to keep the soldiers from doing sustained full auto fire as they tended to do with 30’s.

        good to know the real facts.

        • I believe the answer for the “mad minute” response to every problem was the burst limiter on the later m16’s. All the ones we carried had the unimpeded giggle switch on them. The rate of fire on ours was about 750 rpm. A 20 round mag was gone while all 20 cases were still in the air.

          By contrast the AK’s had a rate of fire of about 500 rpm. You never forget the sound of either gun once learned. You don’t have to see them to know which is firing.

  21. Amazing we seem to be the only ones who care. Yet we want to not be limited on ammo, and still are the first to point out that he in fact is breaking the law.. It makes me insanely angry that this person can break the law on national TV and get away with it.

    • Because the magazine doesn’t become evil until it’s attached to a black gun with a pistol grip. In the minds of the confiscators, a 30-round mag is an amplifier of evil. It’s the firearm itself which is evil.

      I’m not kidding, that’s really how they see it, whether they articulate it this clearly or not.

  22. I saw the interview and Wayne did a great job. That fool should have just asked Wayne if he would like to swallow posion “A” or posion “B”. I’ve been watching several different interviewers, and they all want a yes or no answer to a stupid question that can’t be answered with a simple yes or no without making you look like an idiot.

  24. Gregory gets away with it, yeah, politics is a bitch, and guns rights can’t be saved by a political organization. Did LaPierre say he wants police in the schools or did he say armed guards? Those aren’t the same thing. I also noticed a blurb about mental health at the end: Does the NRA think therapists and psychiatrists are going to do a better job doling out gun rights than Washington has?

    • http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/3032608/#50283353

      Notice that LaPierre is calling for increased bureaucracy, more time and money spent prosecuting potential killers, more time and money spent killing the low levels of mental health privacy we have left. He says not a single word about the boondoggle that is the war on drugs. Politics is a bitch, and the NRA is just more of the same.

  27. I sebt this to Kirsten Powers after her appearance on Fox news Sunday:
    copy and send to every anti gun/Anti ” high cap” news reporter that can’t understand why anyone needs a semi-auto carbine and “high capacity” mags.

    Sent via email to Kirsten Powers:
    Kirsten, May I have a moment of your time to reflect on issue on everyone’s mind?

    I wanted to comment on the news coverage post-Newtown tragedy. First let me say that you are one of the few that attempts to see the whole picture. Pro-gun and anti-gun groups only seem to see their own view as the only solution.

    You have stated that your family has guns and you grew up around them and don’t have a problem with guns themselves or their legal uses. Today on Foxs News, you said you couldn’t understand why anyone needs large capacity magazines that someone can just spray bullets killing many victims. And if they were illegal we would have less victims. We as a nation are reacting to multiple victims and especially so since they were children. Each parent of every child would have a problem with that scenario since their child may be the one of the “lower body count” For me, even one victim is too many. Just lowering the body count isn’t a solution. The crime in China where the children were attacked with a knife is still unacceptable I think their parents would say.

    Criminals tend to avoid armed protected areas and seek out helpless victims especially schools(Gun-free killing fields).

    I am conservative, republican and pro-gun as related to the 2nd Amendment, right to Self- defense as well as hunting and recreational/competition shooting. I do believe in extensive training for everyone that owns/handles weapons. I have no problem with background checks. I believe in setting restrictions for individuals that display questionable actions and/or intent. I agree that there are certain individuals should be prevented from have guns. I lean toward common sense solutions that actually work. Unfortunately one of those solutions is to respond to the killer with deadly force. The reality is that criminals will always get weapons including guns with high capacity magazines. Law abiding citizens must not be prevented from legal ownership of the same type of weapons and capacity to defend themselves, family and property. During hurricanes, tornados, earthquakes civil unrest, economic breakdown and a multitude of events that vital services such as electricity, gas and police presence are non-existent. Looters and gangs roam freely robbing, raping and killing. Drug activity by gangs in our neighborhoods have become all too common. This is when the only defense against these marauders is to be armed adequately to protect your family, friends, neighbors and property. Here is where having adequate arms, magazines and ammunition is needed and vital to surviving one of these events. It is one of those things if you wait until you need it to get it, it is already too late. Large capacity magazines(20 and 30 rds) and semi-auto carbines are very effective in the scenarios listed above. Once the criminal element knows you are not armed or unprepared, nothing will stop them.

    I actually hate it that our country has come to this, but it is reality. I am an information junkie and read and study politics, society and other topics. I have come to realized that we the citizens have to participate in fight to stop the criminal element form terrorizing our country. As everyone knows, criminals do not obey laws. Making a “survival tool” and its accessories illegal will do nothing but disarm the law abiding citizen and make him or her and their family vulnerable to attack.

    There are many things to consider to come to the final solution to protect our children as well as the general public from bad or evil perpetrators. I know I don’t have answer to this but I do know that any ban that affects law-abiding citizens from having the necessary means to protect themselves and family from all threats would cause more killings.

  28. Is that a full auto magazine? LOL! Looks dangerous and like it could kill someone. No, nobody will look into his possession of the magazine. Because he’s a lib voice, he gets to play under different rules than we do.

  29. Before you guys start running your mouth off, let’s make sure the program was indeed taped in D.C. Then, let’s figure out how to get David Gregory prosecuted.

    I checked some websites and some report that it’s filmed in New York…

  30. No compromise on the Second Amendment OR any other Amendment! No compromise on the number of rounds a clip can hold! No compromise on the number of guns you can own!

    No compromise on anything. Tell them to clean up their own backyard first. Tell them to prosecute violent criminals and get the mentally ill off the street.

  32. Gregory is a perfumed punk who is trying to be Geraldo Rivera-I may not like Rivera most of the time but he is no woosy.Gregory literally jumped in his chair when Lindsay Graham said he had an AR15 at home.Schumer was putting on his sickly pawnbroker smile trying to say he doesn’t want to seize guns.I really hope Schumer drops dead very soon.This country has been overrun by scumbags in the government at all levels.

  33. The Weekly Standard is reporting that despite his criticism of the NRA school proposal,  David Gregory’s own kids go to a high-security school with armed guards on the premises:

    “The Gregory children go to school with the children of President Barack Obama, according to the Washington Post. That school is the co-ed Quaker school Sidwell Friends.“According to a scan of the school’s online faculty-staff directory, Sidwell has a security department made up of at least 11 people. Many of those are police officers, who are presumably armed.“Moreover, with the Obama kids in attendance, there is a secret service presence at the institution, as well.”

        • Did you really just flip me off via text? That’s pretty funny.

          It wasn’t personal, this was just the most recent of several examples of a trend that’s shown up recently. I suppose I should at least be grateful that yours was factually accurate. Many instances recently have been erroneous or questionable, but much like the media after Newtown, people have rushed to be the first to post things without verifying their accuracy. I think of it as the “Facebook effect.”

          As an example, I think I’ve seen this at least a dozen times in the past week:

          “No free man shall ever be debarred the use of arms. The strongest reason for the people to retain the right to keep and bear arms is, as a last resort, to protect themselves against tyranny in government.” – Thomas Jefferson

          The problem with that quote is twofold. First, the first sentence was included in a draft of the Virginia Constitution that Jefferson was drafting, but was not included in the final copy as adopted. Second, the second sentence, though it sounds good and like something he might have said, did not appear in the Virginia Constitution in either draft or adopted form, nor is it found in any known writings of Thomas Jefferson, yet people keep quoting it here as if it means something.

          I’m just a little voice that tries to keep things on point and accurate, for better or worse.

    • The nra needs to look into these hypocrites before they go do interviews with them, and point it out on national tv.

      • There’s a complete briefing package prepared for folks like Wayne Lapierre, including questions likely to be asked. There’s a whole negotiation process between the show’s producers and the prospective guests, especially when it’s an “exclusive” interview like this one.

        You really think the NRA would send their main guy onto a show like “Meet The Press” without having done a very thorough prep job?

        • Obviously. I’ve put together such briefing packets for political candidates. My point is given the interview and opportunity for exposing hypocrisy to a wide audience, it appears they didn’t do a very good job.

          Since when has the comment section of ttag become an “assume there worst” fest? Everyone’s got this bug up their arsenal given the climate, but no need to let it make you respond like a dbag.

  35. Not only did I sign the petition, I have spread this on social media as much as I can. I also notified DC police and sent feedback to msnbc pointing out the hypocrisy in this stunt. While I disagree with any AWB or hi cap ban I strongly disagree with special treatment for certain individuals. Just imagine if La Pierre had pulled out a 30 rounder. He would have been arrested, probably on air, and it would be plastered all over the news about how the NRA violated DC gun law. This clown should be arrested, as well as everyone who touched that mag, and properly charged according to the law, just like they are trying to push for in the rest of the country.

  36. i really hope some dc cop sees this and goes after this joker just so he sees how stupid and useless these laws are himself. it would be the perfect high profile example on how these laws only bother law abiding people who have no desire to hurt anyone.

    • Yep, I saw that too. It’s not in effect yet since the mayor has not signed the bill. It was a unanimous, veto proof vote in the city council but the Act still has to go through a 30 day period of review in the U.S. House and Senate after passage.

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