Imagine if, in the days following 9/11, America’s reporters competed with each other to see how quickly they could purchase plane tickets. And then, in grim tones, they reported on how easy it was to get those tickets.

It would be sick and morbid and pointless, wouldn’t it? Why would they blame innocent people for the actions of the guilty? The overwhelming majority of airline passengers, before and since, have boarded and deboarded commercial airliners without incident. Just because 19 Islamic terrorists abused the privilege on that day in 2001 and murdered thousands of people, it doesn’t mean we should punish everybody else.

Yet, in the aftermath of the Orlando massacre, in which a gay Muslim Democrat named Omar Mateen murdered 49 people and injured 53 others in a gay nightclub, America’s reporters are competing with each other to see how quickly they can purchase AR-15s.

Never mind that the overwhelming majority of AR-15 owners never kill anyone, or that Mateen didn’t even use an AR-15. Our moral, ethical, and intellectual betters have a narrative to maintain.

CBS News:

The “expert” they consulted said you can buy an AR-15 as easily as buying a cup of coffee at Starbucks. He must get really annoyed when he orders a grande soy half-caf pumpkin spice latte and the barista puts him through a federal background check.

Incidentally: Did you know that Mateen told anybody and everybody who would listen that he did it for ISIS? I’m not sure if anybody at CBS News cares about that. You wouldn’t know it from watching this report.

Not only was this stunt stupid and pointless, it was also illegal. Stephen Gutowski, Washington Free Beacon:

The gun store where a CBS News employee purchased a gun for a segment that aired yesterday on “CBS This Morning” has filed a report with the Virginia State Police and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives over concerns the purchase was unlawful.

The store, SpecDive Tactical in Alexandria, Virginia, said that when CBS News’ Paula Reid purchased the rifle she told the store’s general manager the gun was for her own use. However, when CBS reported on the story they revealed the gun was purchased for the story and transferred to a third party a few hours later…

“Ms. Paula Reid came into the shop with cash, claiming she wished to purchase an AR-15 to, ‘undergo training,’” Ryan Lamke, SpecDive’s general manager, told the Washington Free Beacon. “She refused basic, free instruction of firearms safety under the pretense that she was using the firearm for training with a NRA certified instructor.”

“Due to the information provided in the CBS News report filed today, I suspect Ms. Reid committed a straw purchase and procurement of a firearm under false pretenses.”

Clearly, Paula Reid of CBS News broke the law.

Will she be punished for it? Doubtful. Gun laws don’t apply to journalists who want more gun laws. Just ask scofflaw gun criminals like David Gregory and Katie Couric. They break the law to scold gun owners who obey the law, and they get a pass because they express the approved opinions. They can do whatever they want. Who are we to hold them to the same laws as the rest of us?

Guns are scary. Just look at ’em. Scary! Ban all the guns.

This is not Dems' sales pitch but I'm totally down with letting the prez unilaterally ban people (hopefully everyone!) from buying guns — Dylan Matthews (@dylanmatt) June 16, 2016

Well, save a few guns for the Secret Service, of course. Good guys with guns don’t defend anybody from bad guys with guns, except when they do.