NBC host may have broken law when using gun prop on 'Meet the Press' -- and cops say network was fully aware it was illegal

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NBC’s David Gregory is an expert on politics, but he may need to brush up on local D.C. law.
Gregory may have run afoul of local Washington police when he brandished a high-capacity gun magazine on “Meet the Press” during an interview with NRA chief Wayne LaPierre on Sunday.
Here is a magazine for ammunition that carries 30 bullets,” Gregory said, holding up the long, black casing. “Now isn’t it possible that if we got rid of these — if we replaced them and said, ‘Well you can only have a magazine that carries five bullets or 10 bullets’ — isn’t it just possible that we could reduce the carnage in a situation like Newtown?”

“I don’t believe that’s going to make one difference,” LaPierre responded. “There are so many different ways to evade that even if you had that (ban).”

After Gregory’s “Meet the Press” show-and-tell, some gun rights activists noted that a section in the D.C. code prohibited the show from having the magazine in its Washington studio.

“No person in the District shall possess, sell, or transfer any large capacity ammunition feeding device regardless of whether the device is attached to a firearm,” it reportedly says.

And a spokesman for the Washington Metropolitan Police Department confirmed to Politico that Gregory’s demonstration might have broken a local law. On Wednesday, the police also said that NBC News was aware that its prop was not lawful.

“NBC contacted (the D.C. Metropolitan Police Department) inquiring if they could utilize a high capacity magazine for their segment,” police spokeswoman Gwendolyn Crump told Politico in an email. “NBC was informed that possession of a high capacity magazine is not permissible and their request was denied.”

The D.C. police did not immediately respond to a request for more information. A spokeswoman for NBC News declined to comment.