D.C. prosecutes ordinary Americans for ‘high-capacity’ magazines
Emily Miller
The Washington Times
1/4/2013
The Washington Metropolitan Police Department (MPD) inquiry into whether NBC’s David Gregory possession on national TV of an illegal 30-round “high-capacity” magazine has been ongoing for three weeks. Meanwhile, U.S. Army veteran James Brinkley is still grappling with the fallout from his arrest last year on the same charge.
Mr. Brinkley’s story is just one example of at least 105 individuals who, unlike Mr. Gregory, were arrested in 2012 for having a magazine that can hold more than 10 rounds.
On Sept. 8, Mr. Brinkley says he intended to drop his wife and young children at the White House for a tour and then head to a shooting range to practice for the U.S. Marshals Service test. Just like Mr. Gregory, Mr. Brinkley called MPD in advance for guidance on how he could do this legally. Mr. Brinkley was told that the gun had to be unloaded and locked in the trunk, and he couldn’t park the car and walk around.
Unlike Mr. Gregory, Mr. Brinkley followed the police orders by placing his Glock 22 in a box with a big padlock in the trunk of his Dodge Charger. The two ordinary, 15-round magazines were not in the gun, and he did not have any ammunition with him.
As he was dropping off his family at 11 a.m. on the corner of Pennsylvania Avenue, Mr. Brinkley stopped to ask a Secret Service officer whether his wife could take the baby’s car seat into the White House. The officer saw Mr. Brinkley had an empty holster, which kicked off a traffic stop that ended in a search of the Charger’s trunk. Mr. Brinkley was booked on two counts of “high capacity” magazine possession (these are ordinary magazines nearly everywhere else in the country) and one count of possessing an unregistered gun.
Despite the evidence Mr. Brinkley had been legally transporting the gun, his attorney Richard Gardiner said the D.C. Office of the Attorney General “wouldn’t drop it.” This is the same office now showing apparent reluctance to charge Mr. Gregory…
The article continues at The Washington Times.
To read the full and detailed story of Mr. Brinkley’s case, please click here: MILLER: If you’re not David Gregory… (extended version).
At Ace of Spades HQ there’s a worthwhile post about this Times article:
Ace has been writing about the New Aristocracy lately, including a few posts about DavidGregory waving around an illegal magazine on TV…
…So we have a US attorney entrusted with the authority to enforce the laws equally who arguably abuses that discretion and goes after Mr. Brinkley, one of the Outs, while at the same ignoring the acts of Gregory, one of the Ins. Of course, he does this without regard to ethical consideration and to ingratiate himself with the Ins, with whom he would like to be associated…
The New Aristocracy…like this guy, via South Dakota Politics:
