Meet the Press’s studios are located in Washington DC. This morning on “Meet the Press”, David Gregory decided to wave around a 30-round AR-15 magazine.

From DC’s gun laws:

DC High Capacity Ammunition Magazines – D.C. Official Code 7-2506.01 (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..”

From Westlaw’s listing of DC’s gun laws:

District of Columbia Official Code 2001 Edition Currentness

Division I. Government of District.

Title 7. Human Health Care and Safety.

Subtitle J. Public Safety.

Chapter 25. Firearms Control.

Full text of all sections at this level Unit A. Firearms Control Regulations.

Full text of all sections at this level Subchapter VI. Possession of Ammunition.

Current selection§ 7-2506.01. Persons permitted to possess ammunition. (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.

Penalties:

It is also illegal to possess, sell or transfer any “large capacity ammunition feeding device.” A person guilty of this charge can be sentenced to a maximum fine of $1000 and/or up to a year imprisonment. D.C. Criminal Code 7-2506.01.

And from the DC Criminal Defense Lawyer Blog:

3. Unlawful Possession of Ammunition – As I mentioned above, in the District of Columbia, unless you are a licensed firearms dealer, you can only possess ammunition for the type of firearm that you are lawfully registered to own. Possession of unlawful ammunition is a crime and can result in a fine of $1,000 and a year in prison. It is also illegal to own what is considered a “large capacity ammunition feeding device,” which 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. I chose to highlight these three major gun laws because they are the ones most likely to catch someone off guard that has no idea they are in violation of the Washington, DC gun laws.

H/T OODA_Loop.

Update: Greetings to readers from Drudge, The Blaze, Breitbart, Michelle Malkin, Inquisitr, Legal Insurrection, FB, and the wider internet.

Update 2: Because of the few 2+2=5 comments that refuse to believe their eyes, David Gregory says at the 9:46 mark at the video provided here:

“Here is a magazine for ammunition that carries 30 bullets.”

Legal Insurrection hasn’t gotten an answer back from NBC on their violation of DC law as of this update. It sure is inconvenient for NBC that David Gregory not only stated it was “a magazine for ammunition that carries 30 bullets”, but that subject matter expert NRA CEO and executive VP Wayne LaPierre was two feet away to witness it in person.

Update 3: There’s now a White House petition to press charges against David Gregory. The DC police might want to actually look into this rather than just brush it off, too. If NBC’s smuggled in an illegal magazine, who knows what else they have in their studios? If NBC has a weapon to go with that magazine in their studio in DC and somebody walks off with it and it’s involved in a crime, the DC police are going to have a hard time saying they couldn’t do anything to prevent it and keep their “Gun Free Zone” safe. NBC would have an even harder time. Imagine the lawsuits.

Update 4-5: CNN’s Don Lemon said something last night (12/22/12) about buying an AR15 rifle for himself in Colorado and then complained about how it took longer at the DMV to get his license than it did to buy the gun. It looks like he may well have broken Colorado gun laws by buying that gun.

Transcript from CNN:

LEMON: OK. And I told you last week that I have an ar-15. And the reason I have an ar-15 is during the Colorado theater shooting, I told you as well. I want to know what I’m talking about when it comes to how, you know — what this person did, if he went in, how long it took him to get a gun, and ar-15. I went gun store until Aurora, Colorado. It took me longer to get the identification that I need to buy that gun than did for me to buy the gun, and the ammunition. It took me 20 minutes. And that’s what — that was over nervous chatter what do I do? I don’t know anything about this.

He’ll probably find a lot folks in agreement with that very last statement, especially since it looks like he may have illegally bought a gun by violating the Colorado gun laws listed below (and by extension, also federal laws).

If he still lives in Atlanta, Georgia where his bio says he’s based, then he violated Colorado gun laws. Those who may buy long guns are listed in statute as such:

12-27-101. Legislative declaration – nonresident.

(1) It is declared by the general assembly that it is lawful for a licensed importer, licensed manufacturer, licensed dealer, or a licensed collector (licensed under the federal “Gun Control Act of 1968”) whose place of business is in this state to

sell or deliver a rifle or shotgun to a resident of a state contiguous to this state, subject to the following restrictions and requirements: … 12-27-103. Definitions. As used in this article, unless the context otherwise requires: (1) “A state contiguous to this state” means any state having a common border with this state.

The ATF generally treats “contiguous states” as the lower 48, unless defined otherwise by the individual state, like Colorado specifically does by saying “common border”. In this case rather than limit just where Coloradans can buy (as per the ATF example), the state statute limits which residents of other states can or cannot buy long guns in Colorado.

The National Shooting Sports Foundation’s chart simplifies the law and cites Colorado long gun purchase laws as such:

COLORADO

Residents: May purchase long-guns only in Arizona, Kansas, Nebraska,

New Mexico, Oklahoma, Utah and Wyoming 3,4 Nonresidents: May purchase long-guns in this state only if they are a resident

of Arizona, Kansas, Nebraska, New Mexico, Oklahoma, Utah

or Wyoming5,6

Even if he’d just moved to Colorado, Colorado.gov says you have to reside in the state for 90 days to have residency (unless you own or operate a business or are employed in Colorado, which probably doesn’t apply if you live and work in Georgia). So he may be violating the law by buying a gun when he’s ineligible, even if he just moved to Colorado and got a driver’s license.

Goes to show once again that we have plenty of gun laws. We just need to start enforcing them against criminals, rather than going after law abiding citizens with more laws that criminals and madmen certainly will never follow and will never be effected by. There may now be two very public examples that could be used to show why you shouldn’t violate gun laws.

H/T jrzy.

Update 6: Greetings to readers from the UK via The Daily Mail.