“Under the Gun” Director Stephanie Soechtig Admit to Federal Crime

I mentioned a few days ago that Katie Couric and Stephanie Soechtig may not have necessarily violated the law by sending a resident of Colorado to Arizona to purchase firearms in a private sale, since an element of the crime under 18 U.S.C. Section 922(a)(3) is transporting back to your home state. I did not mention 922(a)(5), because I was hoping they’d feel the pressure and open their mouths about what happened to it, possibly admitting to a federal crime in the process.  I’m happy to report I am not disappointed! Soechtig informs us that the firearms in question were turned over to the police in Arizona.

That does not violate 922(a)(3), but it does violate 922(a)(5), which is just as serious as an offense. Section 922(a)(5) makes it unlawful for a non-licensee “to transfer, sell, trade, give, transport, or deliver any firearm to any person … who the transferor knows or has reasonable cause to believe does not reside in … the State in which the transferor resides” Now there’s an exception if you’re transferring it to a licensee, so Couric and Soechtig had the legal option to have it transferred back to an FFL holder outside of Colorado. But there is no exception for police, who under the state in question are non-licensees. So their Coloradan agent here, and Couric and Soechtig by way of conspiracy, did commit a serious federal felony if the circumstances they have described are correct.

Now, will they be prosecuted for it, or will they get the David Gregory treatment? Almost certainly the latter. But there is a technical violation of the law, and otherwise good people have been sent to federal prison for these kinds of violations. There is no “good intentions” exception to these laws, and people with good intentions are routinely prosecuted. But I doubt those involved with “Under the Gun” will be, and that’s because elites take care of their own. One thing it’s not is justice.