NBCDavid Gregory has found himself in the crosshairs of Washington, D.C.'s Finest.
Local law enforcement has launched an investigation into the Meet the Press moderator's casual showcase of a high-capacity gun clip during Sunday's interview with NRA honcho Wayne LaPierre to determine whether he violated any city gun laws.
During the sit-down, the 42-year-old Gregory held up the 30-round cartridge case while confronting LaPierre about the damage high-capacity clips have caused in such mass shootings as the one that occurred in Newtown, Conn., before the Christmas holiday.
"Here is a magazine for ammunition that carries 30 bullets," said the journalist, nodding to the magazine in his hand. "Now isn't it possible that if we got rid of these—if we replaced them and said, 'Well, you can only have a magazine that carries five bullets or 10 bullets'—isn't it just possible that we could reduce the carnage in a situation like Newtown?"
Araz Alali, a spokesman for the District of Columbia Metropolitan Police Department, subsequently confirmed it was probing the show-and-tell, telling Politico, "There are D.C. code violations, D.C. code restrictions on guns, ammunition.
"We are investigating this matter," Alali said. "Beyond the scope of that, I can't comment any further."
But potentially complicating matters for NBC News, another police spokeswoman, Gwendolyn Crump, later issued a statement in which she clarified that when segment producers contacted her department, they were told that showcasing a high-capacity magazine for their segment was not allowed.
"NBC was informed that possession of a high-capacity magazine is not permissible and their request was denied," she told E! News. "This matter is currently being investigated."
No word whether the clip Gregory held up was a prop. A rep for Meet the Press declined to comment.
But should the TV talking head run afoul of D.C. law, which has some of the toughest gun control laws on the books, that would be pretty ironic considering he was talking about gun control with the country's most powerful advocate for gun rights.
When asked by Gregory whether a ban on such high-capacity magazines would make a dent in such massacres as occurred in Newtown, LaPierre had this to say.
"I don't believe that's going to make one difference," LaPierre replied. "There are so many different ways to evade that even if you had that [ban]."
(E! and Meet the Press are part of the NBCUniversal family.)
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