No gun magazine charges for David Gregory

[alp227]

Source: Politico

NBC’s David Gregory is off the hook for showing a high-capacity gun magazine on “Meet the Press” and will not be prosecuted, D.C.’s attorney general announced on Friday.

D.C. attorney general Irvin Nathan on Friday said he would decline to prosecute in the case involving the Sunday show host and any NBC staffers. In a letter to NBC’s attorney Lee Levine, Nathan wrote that after reviewing the matter, his office “has determined to exercise its prosecutorial discretion to decline to bring criminal charges against Mr. Gregory, who has no criminal record, or any other NBC employee based on the events associated” with the broadcast.

(...)

Nathan noted that his office’s decision in this case was also influenced by “our recognition that the intent of the temporary possession and short display of the magazine was to promote the First Amendment purpose of informing an ongoing public debate about firearms policy in the United States.”

Read more: http://www.politico.com/story/2013/01/no-gun-magazine-charges-for-david-gregory-86079.html

[Enrique]

1. common sense decision

now they should look into the dancing episode.

[SCVDem]

2. You took my thought! nt

[Tx4obama]

3. it was "a very close decision."

Washington (CNN) -- No employees of NBC will face criminal charges over the display of a high-capacity ammunition magazine on a "Meet the Press" program in violation of local law in Washington, prosecutors told the network on Friday.

The capital city's attorney general, Irvin Nathan, said in a letter to NBC there would be no charges, but added that it was "a very close decision."

Nathan also said "there is no doubt of the gravity of the illegal conduct in this matter, especially in a city and a nation that have been plagued by carnage from gun violence."

The letter also confirmed the 30-round magazine displayed by show host David Gregory on December 23 was empty. At the time, Gregory was interviewing Wayne LaPierre of the National Rifle Association, a strong opponent of new gun control proposals.

-snip-

http://www.cnn.com/2013/01/11/politics/guns-nbc/index.html

[Confusious]

4. I think that's kinda sad

As much as I dislike Gregory.

[ProgressiveProfessor]

5. One law for the few, another for the rest of us

[apocalypsehow]

9. No, "professor"*: there is a difference between using an ammo magazine to make a point on a

Sunday discussion program, and another to attach it to a weapon and kill innocent people like the bastard up in Sandy Hook did - a distinction lost on you, of course, as you have demonstrated over the years. If you were a real "professor," or had even a college education, you would be able to make that distinction with little effort: but I don't think they teach Critical thinking or Logic courses at the gun magazine rack in the local Gump's Sporting Good's, or in the sporting goods aisles of Wal Mart.

Now, take your pro-NRA, anti-progressive show elsewhere: the vast majority of DU'ers aren't interested in reading it.


*( )

[Psephos]

13. Some animals are more equal than others...

Google James Brinkley for an example.

Brinkley somehow didn't get the benefit of "prosecutorial discretion"...hmm, I wonder why?

Pick the right answer:

1. He's black.
2. He's not famous.
3. He doesn't have the ability to make politicians look bad by influencing news coverage of them.
4. He's not rich, nor does he have a staff of behind-the-scenes "fixers" or access to a large, free, corporate staff of attorneys at his disposal.
5. All of the above.

[NickB79]

15. I must have missed that exemption in the legal code

Could you quote it for us all to read, where it's OK to flaunt the law if it's to make a point?

After all, this guy walked into a school carrying a 2x4 with the words "rifle" written on it to make a point about school security following Sandy Hook: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/12/20/christopher-johnson-sandy-hook-elementary-rifle_n_2337894.html

He was arrested and charged with disorderly conduct. Should that stand, or should that charge be thrown out as well, since it was all to make a good point?

[Eleanors38]

16. Well, gun-control elites do watch after themselves, don't they?

You don't speak for DU, last time I checked.

[neverforget]

11. It's called prosecutorial discretion.

For better or for worse, it happens all the time.

[jpak]

18. Pity the Delicate Flowers

yup

[ProgressiveProfessor]

19. No, pity those without friends in high places

[NCthraxman]

6. The 2nd tier

More of our 2 tiered justice system on full display.

[Larrymoe Curlyshemp]

7. Dammit!

I was hoping he'd be in stir for at LEAST a couple months! That way, Rachel Maddow could sit in for him, and, when the country sees how incredibly superior a journalist she is to DG, he'd never get to plank his ass in Russert's chair again!

[bobclark86]

8. So, what the FUCK is the point...

of strict gun control laws if you don't enforce them? It's like when straw purchases are reported and a fraction are prosecuted.

[RudynJack]

10. The point of strict gun control laws...

is to try to reduce gun violence.

Holding an empty magazine with no gun anywhere nearby is not going to lead to gun violence. This is the equivalent of "fair use". He was using it as an expository tool - not as a weapon.

[Eleanors38]

17. Please see #16.

[bubbayugga]

12. I love selective enforcement of the law

when it works for me.

[RudynJack]

14. I love

when people come to rational conclusions, like "a journalist holding an empty magazine for demonstration purposes poses no threat whatsoever, and prosecution would be silly."