Did a CBS News reporter just break federal firearms law in an overzealous bid to push gun control?

(Freedom.news) The Left-wing media has always been relentless in its pursuit of gun control, but one member of the club may have just broken a major federal law governing the sale of firearms in her overzealous attempt to support Democrats’ new push to ban “assault” weapons.

As reported by the Washington Free Beacon, a Virginia gun store owner has contacted the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives after a CBS News reporter allegedly made a straw purchase of an AR-15 – a felony punishable by fines and prison.

The WFB reported:

The gun store where a CBS News employee purchased a gun for a segment that aired Thursday on “CBS This Morning” has filed a report with the Virginia State Police and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives over concerns the purchase was unlawful. 

The store, SpecDive Tactical in Alexandria, Virginia, said that when CBS News’ Paula Reid purchased the rifle she told the store’s general manager the gun was for her own use. However, when CBS reported on the story they revealed the gun was purchased for the story and transferred to a third party a few hours later. “The rifle we purchased was legally transferred to a federally licensed firearms dealer and weapons instructor in Virginia, just hours after we bought it,” the report said.

The gun shop said they contacted ATF after seeing the report because they believed that the reporter mislead them in a way that constituted a straw purchase, a big no-no when it comes to buying a gun (to the uninitiated Kool-aid drinker, this is just one of thousands of gun laws already on the books)

“Ms. Paula Reid came into the shop with cash, claiming she wished to purchase an AR-15 to, ‘undergo training,’” Ryan Lamke, SpecDive’s general manager, told the Washington Free Beacon. “She refused basic, free instruction of firearms safety under the pretense that she was using the firearm for training with a NRA certified instructor.”

“Due to the information provided in the CBS News report filed today, I suspect Ms. Reid committed a straw purchase and procurement of a firearm under false pretenses.”

SpecDive owner Jerry Rapp said that Reid misleading the store about her intent to hand the rifle over to a third party was a clear violation of the law.

“The law is very clear. When you knowingly attempt to purchase a firearm with the intent of giving it to another person, you are trying to bypass the legal pathway to firearms ownership,” he said. “This, in itself, is a very serious crime. I do not see how any member of the press can get away with potentially committing a felony just to boost their ratings and mislead the general public.”

He’s right, of course. And while the ATF was non-committal when the WFB followed up – per standard protocol (they never comment on ongoing investigations) – there is no guarantee here that the agency will even charge anyone at CBS with a crime (because the agency allowed massive amounts of straw purchases during its “Operation Fast and Furious” fiasco), though it is obvious to any unbiased observer that one has likely been committed. After all, no one knows gun laws better than the people who sell them.

But more to the point, the political Left will go to any lengths – even breaking the law – to “prove” that more gun control is needed. What’s worse, many of the Leftist media’s supporters will simply swallow the report whole, never questioning the details behind the purchase or giving much thought to the fact that a major felony was likely committed just to do the story. They will never see the hypocrisy that a federal gun law was broken during a story that is pushing for more federal gun control laws.

It’s absurd, of course, but politically useful to the authoritarians in the Democratic Party, a political organization that, like the Communists of the Soviet Union, live by the motto, “The ends justify the means.”

More:

• Obama Administration Working To Prevent Americans On Disability From Being Able To Keep And Bear Arms
• Yes, America, Hillary Clinton Is Coming For Your Guns
• Obama Administration Just Making It Up Along The Way With Regards To Gun Rules, Which Are At Odds With ATF Guidance

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