DC Trawler

David Gregory still hasn’t turned himself in for purposely breaking the law he was advocating

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Last Dec. 22, on a national television program called Meet the Press, host David Gregory did this:

Possession of the ammunition magazine Mr. Gregory was waving around is illegal in Washington, DC, where Meet the Press is taped. The Metro Police claim they’re investigating, but what is there to investigate? He did it. On national TV. Investigation over.

If you or I got caught with such an ammunition magazine in DC, we’d be arrested because we’re not liberal television journalists. Fortunately for our moral, ethical, and intellectual betters in the media, the laws that apply to us don’t apply to them.

Emily Miller at the Washington Times provides a stark example of this double standard:

In July, The Washington Times highlighted the plight of former Army Spc. Adam Meckler, who was arrested and jailed for having a few long-forgotten rounds of ordinary ammunition — but no gun — in his backpack in Washington. Mr. Meckler, a veteran of the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, says he had no idea it was illegal to possess unregistered ammunition in the city. He violated the same section of D.C. law as Mr. Gregory allegedly did, and both offenses carry the same maximum penalty of a $1,000 fine and a year in jail.

Mr. Meckler was charged with the crime and was forced to accept a plea deal to avoid the cost and time of a protracted legal fight…

“I unknowingly broke the law,” Mr. Meckler told The Washington Times. “Mr. Gregory knowingly broke the law. While both are seemingly harmless, both acts were deemed illegal under the District’s obscure firearms laws…”

The former Army medic is still upset about being left with a criminal record and being enrolled on the police list of firearms-related criminals. “I think if you had to measure the criminality of the two instances, his should be interpreted as more severe. At the very least, he should be put on probation, pay a fine and be added to the District’s Gun Offender Registry, as I was ordered to do,” Mr. Meckler said.

That outcome seems less and less likely by the day, as the MPD “conducts an investigation” until everybody forgets about it and the problem goes away. Laws are laws… except when they’re not.

From now on, I’m referring to him as “gun criminal David Gregory.” Just because the cops won’t do their job doesn’t mean we can’t remind them about it.