| A February
17th segment on CNN's "Paula Zahn Now" featured a story
on the .50 BMG rifle. CNN's Drew Griffin described his effort
to purchase one of these rifles through a private transaction.
Griffin first went to the popular gun
classifieds site, GunsAmerica.com, looking for what he described
as "the biggest caliber rifle you could possibly buy."
He was looking for a private seller, not a federally-licensed
dealer. He found a seller in Houston, and emailed him saying that
he wanted to buy privately, and had cash.
And this is where Drew Griffin began to
walk a fine line between a legal purchase and violating the Gun
Control Act of 1968.
Griffin and his crew flew from Atlanta
to Houston to purchase the rifle. He made the statement that "What
we're about to do is perfectly legal in dozens of states where
cash-and-carry is the rule, a private seller, a private buyer.
There will be no background check, no government waiting period,
no government paperwork at all. In fact, the only paper that will
change hands is the money we use to buy our .50- caliber rifle."
Wrong. It is illegal under federal law
for someone to buy a gun in a state in which he does not reside.*
It's a felony that carries a prison sentence of up to ten years.
Griffin is a resident of Georgia, not Texas.
That little fact didn't stop Griffin from
misleading the public, though. He continued:
"The transaction at a house in suburban
Houston took about 20 minutes. We walked out with a case holding
the gun critics say is the perfect terrorist weapon, a brand new
.50-caliber with scope, bipod and directions. We flew home."
"Guns are checked as baggage. And
when the bags arrived for our flight, I simply picked it up and
left."
If the transaction had gone as Griffin
described, the BATF should have been waiting to pick him
up.
But Griffin let one minor detail wait
until very near the end of his story, and then glossed over it
quickly: it was a Texas resident, not Griffin, who actually purchased
the rifle. Presumably, the resident was one of Griffin's crew
members.
However, this begs more questions: did
the Texas resident purchase the rifle for himself, or for Griffin?
If it was for Griffin, then it was a straw purchase, which is
also a felony under the Gun Control Act of 1968. Did the Texas
resident stay behind, or did he return to Atlanta with Griffin
and crew? That is the definitive question as to whether this was
a legal purchase or not.
In their zeal to demonize .50 BMG rifles,
CNN and Drew Griffin may have violated the law. If so, then Drew
Griffin should be arrested, tried and jailed, just as so many
law-abiding gun owners have been who run afoul of confusing gun-control
laws.
On the other hand, if Drew Griffin and
his crew stayed within the lines of the law, then he is guilty
of playing fast and loose with the truth. And, if CNN is willing
to tolerate misleading stories on gun issues, how can the public
be assured they're hearing the truth on other issues?
*Footnote: it is legal for a resident
of one state to purchase a firearm in another state, but only
if the firearm is shipped to a licensed dealer in the buyer's
home state, and the buyer goes through the federal background
check as well as any other laws that apply in his state.
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