Gun Control: For Other People

I was going to write about NBC News correspondent David Gregory's waving around of a 30-round magazine while interviewing NRA Executive Vice President Wayne LaPierre. But Mark Steyn of National Review beat me to it and probably did it better.

What I'll add to it is the observation that this is hardly new and hardly surprising. During the Patrick Purdy controversy in 1989, a California station somehow got hold of the very gun Purdy used to shoot up an elementary school and dropped it in a surprised LaPierre's arms. I don't doubt he's since learned to keep his hands in his pockets, but we found it pretty interesting at the time that law enforcement allowed a piece of evidence from a live investigation to be removed from police custody and used as a prop on a TV show.

But you have to understand that the press doesn't regard the law as particularly applying to it. As some sort of alleged media professional for almost 40 years, I can tell you that there is a certain attitude of entitlement that comes with the territory. On your very first job out of journalism school, you get into high school football games and banquets for free. You get to walk places that regular folks don't. Politicians and business leaders share confidences that the average citizen never hears. The bigger the paper, station or magazine you work for, the more desirable the goodies behind the velvet ropes.

When the press regards itself as being "on the team" with the likes of Janet Reno or Mike Bloomberg, against us, that is, a little thing like District of Columbia law is hardly to be worried about. The D.C. police will investigate, with about the same efficiency they exhibit with your average murder in the nation's capital, and the whole thing will be swept under the rug. It'll be about the same way it was when one of Ted Kennedy's bodyguards tried to stroll into a Senate office building with a pair of Uzis. That one was marked down as a "technical glitch in the law" and promptly forgotten.

Gun laws are not for the rich, not for celebrities, not for politicians,. not for the press, not really for criminals. Gun control is for you.