Yeserday morning, CBS aired a segment that purported to show how easy it was to buy one of those scary, black, AR-15 thingies and transfer it to someone else:

There is just one small problem, the CBS reporter, Paula Reid, broke federal law during the filming:

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.”

SpecDive owner Jerry Rapp said that Reid misleading the store about her intention to give the gun 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.”

All this segment did was demonstrate that if someone is intent upon violating the law, the technical term for people like this is “criminals”, then they will violate the law. If the dealer acts in good faith and does all the appropriate checks and is deceived their is very little else one could expect them to do.

Nothing is going to happen here because there is a huge double standard in how left wing media types are treated when they violate the law and how conservatives are treated. For instance, David Gregory violated DC’s draconian firearms laws to film a television segment and nothing happened, David Daleiden was indicted for using minor subterfuge to help shut down Planned Parenthood’s illegal sale of baby body parts. Just as Obama’s agenda includes unrestricted abortion on demand, it also includes banning firearms to the maximum extent possible. Reid’s criminality dovetails nicely with Obama’s agenda so we can expect her to be feted at the White House in the near future.