Even More on the CNN .50 BMG Rifle Story

Triggerfinger reports that Michael Bane contacted the National Shooting Sports Foundation in regards to the CNN story on .50 caliber rifles and reports:

FLASH! CNN Violated Federal Firearms Law!

Based on my conversations with legal experts within the firearms industry, CNN did indeed violate at least one, and probably two, federal firearms laws in their reporting of the .50 caliber controversy last week.

Representatives of the industry are currently in touch with the ATF.

This is becoming more and more interesting as time goes on.

Triggerfinger has a pretty comprehensive page of links on the story, too.

UPDATE: Triggerfinger gets Instalanched!

Further update: Michael Bane expands on his previous post. Upshot:

By now, the upper echelons of the ATF have been made aware of the CNN violations. My contacts told me there was very little chance the agency would move against CNN because of “intent” — there was no intent to violate the law.

That might work with murder and manslaughter, but my reading of the gun law doesn’t leave a lot of room for “intent” — of course, I’m not an attorney!

“Intent” doesn’t seem to be of much importance when law enforcement is raiding people like William Bechard. But I can’t say I’m surprised. The question now is whether the blogosphere can bring enough heat on CNN to get it to make another “non-retraction” retraction.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *