David Gregory, NBC Crime Boss

From the Wall Street Journal, a call to Free David Gregory.

Moving right along in America's gun control, er, "conversation," we now have the illuminating debate over the alleged criminality of "Meet the Press" host David Gregory. Somehow this seems appropriate to the quality of the rest of the gun debate.

The Washington Post reported Wednesday that Washington, D.C. police are investigating the notorious NBC News crime boss for using an unlawful rifle magazine as a prop for his Sunday program. The Post says Mr. Gregory had asked police for permission to acquire the 30-round rifle magazine, which is banned under D.C. law, but police refused. Mr. Gregory displayed the ammo anyway during his interview with Wayne LaPierre of the National Rifle Association.

This has created an uproar, with gun rights advocates calling for Mr. Gregory's indictment, if not yet the death penalty, and police acknowledging their probe.

How perfect can you get? Mr. Gregory interrogates Mr. LaPierre on the subject of whether to ban a magazine that it is illegal for Mr. Gregory to display but apparently easy enough to acquire in time for a Sunday morning broadcast. So here we have a possible indictment that would be entirely nonsensical of a journalist who was trying to embarrass an NRA official over an ammunition ban whose impact would be entirely symbolic.

We think that it's more than a little bizarre that under the law, David Gregory (and possibly members of the NBC News department who obtained the high capacity magazine for him) should be arrested, indicted and convicted of a felony which was deliberately committed in broad daylight and broadcast to millions of homes. But that is the law, and the law should be no respecter of persons. If it is illegal for Joe Lunchbucket to possess such an item in Washington DC it is equally illegal for a member of the ruling class like David Gregory to possess it.

Perhaps this is the time to state that the law is a dead letter and should not be enforced for anyone or even repealed. David Gregory may have made a valuable contribution to the debate about guns and gun control. We can only hope.