http://www.nationalreview.com/node/436400/print Forget Manipulative Editing — Katie Couric’s Team Likely Violated Federal Law
The delicious irony of gun-control advocates breaking laws in an effort to prove they don’t exist
By Charles C. W. Cooke — June 9, 2016
The plot thickens. A couple of weeks ago, it was reported that Stephanie Soechtig, the director of a Katie Couric–fronted gun-control infomercial titled Under the Gun, had selectively edited her interviewees’ testimony in order to make them look dumb. Now, it seems that Soechtig and her team may have bigger problems than having been caught in a lie: One or more among them may be heading toward a felony charge.
During a recent television interview, Soechtig claimed indignantly that she had sent a co-producer from Colorado into the state of Arizona, where he made contact with a private gun seller and purchased three handguns and a “Bushmaster” rifle. According to Soechtig, that these transactions were “perfectly legal” demonstrates that the laws need changing.
The problem for Soechtig — and for her broader argument — is that these transactions weren’t in fact legal. Not even close. Under existing federal law, one may obtain firearms outside of one’s state of residence only from a federally licensed firearms dealer. Moreover, at least until Mance v. Lynch is resolved, one may legally obtain a handgun only in one’s own state of residence. If, as Soechtig claims, a Colorado resident purchased three handguns and a rifle from a private seller in another state, he broke federal law at least four times.
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