Wherein We Ask the Question: Katie Where Are Your Guns?

Schadenfreude is a German word that roughly translates as deriving pleasure from someone else's misery.  Usually to derive pleasure rather than empathize, you must believe the other person richly deserves to be made miserable.  Schadenfreude is not a very Christian feeling, and so I must confess to feeling it in the case of Katie Couric and her production team for the film Under the Gun. In addition to being caught lying to the public by selectively editing material to make members of the Virginia Citizens Defense League look bad, it now appears that Federal gun crimes, some of which are felonies, were committed. Those claims have since been pulled by a compliant media, but the Director, Stephanie Soechtig has dug herself a deeper hole. Bob Owens has the goods over at Bearing Arms entitled Where Are Katie Couric's Illegal Guns? Not Where She Thinks. Bob Owens writes:

Soechtig inadvertently confessed to the crimes in a February interview which has since been pulled offline.

She then released a revised claim yesterday to several media outlets.

While it may seem hard to believe that one could buy these types of guns this easily, all purchases in the film were made completely legally. Arizona law allows out-of-state residents to buy long guns (i.e. rifles, shotguns, military style assault rifles) from a private seller without a background check. It also allows Arizona residents to buy handguns from a private seller without a background check.

We demonstrated both versions of this dangerous loophole in the film on a hidden camera, in full compliance with both state and federal laws. The rifles – including an AR-15, the gun used to massacre 20 first graders – were purchased by an out of state resident. The handgun was purchased by an Arizona resident.

These guns were then turned over to law enforcement and destroyed. They never left the state of Arizona.

What Soechtig clearly doesn’t grasp is that Arizona law is not the only law with which she needs to comply, and by having a Colorado resident producer purchase firearms in Arizona, she conspired (perhaps criminally) to have him buy firearms in interstate sales in violation of federal laws, specifically 18 U.S.C. § 922 : US Code – Section 922.

Bizarrely, Soechtig seems to think she’s off the hook, and that the evidence of their crimes—the guns themselves—were destroyed.

Owens goes on to point out that the guns are unlikely to have been destroyed, because the bureaucracy simply doesn't work that way. But, as I said yesterday, she is unlikely to ever be prosecuted for these crimes. let alone suffer any official censure because of breaking the law. Unfortunately, many people I know would give Miss Couric and company a pass, on the basis that even if she did break the law, she was trying to do good, don't you know.  As if that was the legal standard.  One could literally get away with murder, if one credibly claimed to be doing God's work.

But, breaking the law to keep it is not a legal standard of which I am aware.  Or at least, it didn't used to be.  The law used to apply to everyone.  Now, if you have a politically pure heart, you are golden.225154444441