The Washington, D.C., Attorney General has decided not to charge “Meet the Press” host David Gregory or NBC, after they showed a high-capacity ammunition clip during an NRA interview last month. A.G. Irvin B. Nathan explained the decision in a letter to NBC:
Influencing our judgment in this case, among other things, is our recognition that the intent of the temporary possession and short display of the magazine was to promote the First Amendment purpose of informing an ongoing public debate about firearms policy in the United States, especially while this subject was foremost in the minds of the public following the … events in Connecticut and the President’s speech to the nation about them.
Not influencing their decision, they said, was “the feeble and unsatisfactory efforts that NBC made to determine whether or not it was lawful to possess, display, and broadcast this large capacity magazine as a means of fostering the public policy debate.”
NBC should be warned, the letter continues, that the decision not to press charges was “a very close decision”; the network should “take meticulous care” in the future to follow the law.
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