Gun Store Owner: CBS Lied, Broke Federal Law With Undercover Sting

NewsBusters.org ^ | June 17, 2016 | Scott Whitlock

[Kaslin]

CBS News, in an anti-Second Amendment story warning about how easy it is to get dangerous weapons, on Thursday broke federal law with an undercover sting. That’s the claim from a gun store in Alexandria, Virginia. The Washington Free Beacon on Friday reported that SpecDive Tactical “has filed a report with the Virginia State Police and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives over concerns the purchase was unlawful.” 

In the CBS report, journalist Kris Van Cleave narrated the hidden camera efforts of This Morning: “We sent a CBS News producer into a gun store in Alexandria just outside of Washington, D.C.” Offering this as shocking, Van Cleave explained what producer Paula Reid did: “She filled out these federal and state forms requiring her name, date of birth, Social Security number, and a few basic questions about any past criminal activity or current restraining orders and she passed a brief electronic background check.

CBS Looks at Orlando Terror Attack By Investigating Gun Sales in...Alexandria, Virginia?

The problem? The Free Beacon’s Steve Gutowski explained: 

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 store said they contacted the ATF after viewing the report because they feared the misdirection used by the CBS reporter constituted a straw purchase, which would be a federal crime.

“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.”

CBS’s gotcha report came on the same morning the program ignored the news that an Orlando gun shop refused to sell ammunition and body armor to Omar Mateen. Then, the store alerted federal authorities. This was weeks before the slaughter at a night club. 

CBS This Morning co-host Gayle King has pushed for gun control this week. On Thursday, she said of Democratic Senator Chris Murphy’s gun control filibuster:  “Many people are applauding you for raising the issue again.” On Wednesday, she wondered, "what will it take to move the needle" on gun control?

[bruoz]

It is that easy to buy an AR-15 from a FFL dealer in the South. So what? That’s the way it should be.

[Mercat]

The guy who took the Planned Parenthood videos was charged with a felony for falsifying an ID.

[Flick Lives]

The only Federal crime is to be a conservative.

[The_Republic_Of_Maine]

The fbi will do whatever their lord and master barak hussien, the sodomite Islamic terrorist illegal alien, tell them to do.

[bruoz]

BTW there is a three day wait in most of the bigger counties in Florida unless you have a CWP.

[bert]

CBS can pay a producer’s fine but CBS can’t do the producer’s time.

She is guilty

[jaydubya2]

"she passed a brief electronic background check"

What's that? I've always done the complete NICS.

[Jack Hammer]

As we’ve seen countless times, the anti-firearms crowd consider that firearms bans are only for law-abiding firearms owners, not themselves, and certainly not for media swells or government employees.

[Does so]

Wait a minute! If she was asked by CBS to purchase the gun, doesn’t that make a straw purchase?

For lying on an ATF form, she should be doing the same amount of time in prison as did Martha Stewart.

[HiTech RedNeck]

Agencies often take liberties with the law.

[elpadre]

Remember CBS arranged fake protests in the South (Mississippi. I believe), during the lead up to the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and did the same in Vietnam (anti-war, anti USA). They are propagandists of the first order.

[HiTech RedNeck]

Surely this is not the only time that news agencies have gotten in legal trouble for masquerading.

[HiTech RedNeck]

This is a common complaint about modern media; no longer mere reporters of stories, they want to become part of the stories.

[glasseye]

But you must remember, progressives do not care if they are lied to.

[Sacajaweau]

http://www.cnn.com/2014/06/16/justice/supreme-court-straw-purchase/index.html

[Sacajaweau]

My previous post shows USSC ruling.

[ctdonath2]

It was promptly transferred to another FFL, not a disqualified individual.
Non issue, case is going nowhere.

All she did was demonstrate that most cities have stores dedicated to openly & legally selling & buying legal products.

[Ken H]

Looks like a guy who drinks hot chocolate and wears red and black pajamas.

[Ken H]

I was referring to Kris Van Cleave, of course.

[38special]

It doesn’t matter, the damage is already done. Millions of impressionable women watched it and will vote for Hillary and more gun control in November.