Show some compassion

I say the prosecutors should show some compassion and only ask for a moderate penalty in this case:

In a nationally televised interview examining the place of gun control, NBC’s David Gregory may have violated the District’s gun laws.

DavidGregoryMagazineCrime

The law (DC ST § 7-2506.01) says:

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.

I had difficulty tracking down the punishment but it appears this could be the potential outcome (DC ST § 22-4515):

Any violation of any provision of this chapter for which no penalty is specifically provided shall be punished by a fine of not more than $1,000 or imprisonment for not more than 1 year, or both.

It appears (I am not a lawyer!) this might also apply (DC ST § 22-1805a):

(a)(1) If 2 or more persons conspire either to commit a criminal offense or to defraud the District of Columbia or any court or agency thereof in any manner or for any purpose, each shall be fined not more than $10,000 or imprisoned not more than 5 years, or both, except that if the object of the conspiracy is a criminal offense punishable by less than 5 years, the maximum penalty for the conspiracy shall not exceed the maximum penalty provided for that offense.

(2) If 2 or more persons conspire to commit a crime of violence as defined in § 23-1331(4), each shall be fined not more than $3000 nor the maximum fine prescribed for the offense, the commission of which was the object of the conspiracy, whichever is less, or imprisoned not more than 15 years nor the maximum imprisonment prescribed for the offense, the commission of which was the object of the conspiracy, whichever is less, or both.

Since it is a victimless crime I say prosecutors should fine everyone involved $500 and six months for the possession and $500 and six months for the conspiracy. I’m opposed to victimless crimes in their entirety but one of the ways to get rid of such laws is to prosecute them vigorously. Half the maximum penalty sounds about right to me.

Say Uncle (with more links here and here) and Sebastian also have some thoughts on the topic.

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10 thoughts on “Show some compassion

  1. I respectfully Disagree, Sir. I think EVERYONE involved in the BLATANT Disregard for the Safety of the Children of our Nation’s Capital should be Punished to the Full Extant of the Law. If the Anti-Freedom Crowd wants to destroy the RKBA, then they should take the Lead and send Gregory and his Producers to the Federal Pen! No Playing Favorites! No One is Above the Law! Sauce for the Goose means Sauce for the Gander!

    Hey, how many of THEM have Tweeted and Blogged and Commented that all Gun Owners and NRA Members MUST BE SHOT!

    Turn About is Fair Play to me. Besides, just how small is Gregory’s Penis that he needs to waive a 30 Round Magazine in the First Place?

  2. I’m gonna bet that that’s not a real magazine. Whenever Hollywood can’t get something, they create a fake. Yeah, it would have been cheaper to use the real thing but if the law says they can’t, they get around it by creating something that looks like something but isn’t.

  3. @ubu52, That’s a reasonable hypothesis. But I tend to agree with William A. Jacobson:

    if the magazine were just a prop, one would expect a prompt response from NBC News instead of stonewalling.

  4. I think NBC needs the publicity and that’s why they are silent. They’ll let this play for awhile and when it starts to die down, they’ll jump in and say something.

    They have no need to use a real magazine if it wasn’t allowed. That prop house I linked to is in NYC and they could have it delivered to Washington DC in two hours.

  5. I think he did a great job of demonstrating that gun laws don’t work. If they did he would have hit an invisible barrier as soon as he got into city limits and it wouldn’t have made it to the set.

  6. Joe, money doesn’t mean anything to big entertainment companies. If they need something, they get it.

    I’d agree that they might have gotten conflicting information too.

    Anyway, just from my personal experience: 1) anything can be faked 2) money is no object when it comes to shipping something a big media company needs “time sensitive.” Logistics can be incredibly complex and “spendy” but you’d be amazed what can be in very little time.

    • One problem.

      We have gregory on film, holding the object, and unequivocally and explicitly declaring it to be a 30 round magazine. It’s going to be hard for him to impeach his on contemperaneous, freely given, statement.

      Good luck on that one. . .

      Else drug dealers who managed to chuck their dope into the river when the narcotics officer flashed his badge would be able to claim, “I was just selling baking soda. So I lied about what it was, in order to get more money — it ain’t ‘fraud’ when the ‘victim’ thinks it’s an illegal transaction to begin with.”

  7. They have one fool-proof way to get out of this problem:

    That’s not a 30 round .223 Remington magazine.

    That’s a 10 round .458 SOCOM magazine.

    At least, if they pass some kind of ban on magazine sizes over 10 rounds, I’ll be buying a .458 SOCOM upper and a set of epoxy-affixed metal labels to turn all my banned magazines into compliant magazines.

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