A CBS News employee who tried to prove a point this week by purchasing an AR-15 rifle from a Virginia gun store may have broken the law when she reportedly lied and said she was buying the firearm for herself.
In a report that aired this week on “CBS This Morning,” producer Paula Reid visited SpecDive Tactical in Alexandria, Va., and documented her experience purchasing the popular rifle.
She said it took her just 38 minutes and a little more than $1,000 to acquire the rifle legally.
It took 38 minutes and $1,030 for our @CBSNews producer to buy an AR-15 and walk out legally armed in Virginia. pic.twitter.com/vNWLNeyRhN
— CBS This Morning (@CBSThisMorning) June 16, 2016
In the course of purchasing the firearm, however, Reid reportedly told the gun store salesman that she was buying it for herself, which was not true. The rifle was purchased for the purpose of a CBS News segment, and transferred later to a third party.
“The rifle we purchased was legally transferred to a federally licensed firearms dealer and weapons instructor in Virginia, just hours after we bought it,” CBS revealed in its report.
Following this revelation, the Virginia gun store contacted the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives over concerns that the purchase may have been illegal, the Washington Free Beacon’s Stephen Gutowski reported.
By withholding that she intended to transfer the rifle to a third party, the sale could constitute a “straw purchase,” which would be a federal crime, the store’s general manager said.
“Paula Reid came into the shop with cash, claiming she wished to purchase an AR-15 to ‘undergo training,'” SpecDive’s Ryan Lamke told the Free Beacon. “She refused basic, free instruction of firearms safety under the pretense that she was using the firearm for training with an 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,” he added.
The store’s owner, Jerry Rapp, took it a step further, and said it’s clear the producer broke the law when she reportedly said she was buying the rifle for herself.
“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.”
Reid, for her part, maintained Friday that she did nothing unlawful.
“Sale, purchase, & transfer all legal. ID’d myself as a [CBS News] reporter [twice] during sale (was recorded) & transfer,” she said on social media.
Her response, however, does not address whether she disclosed during the purchase that she planned to transfer the rifle to a third party.
The ATF said it is aware of the situation, and said “is not evident if a violation occurred.” The federal agency offered no further comment.
The CBS report came days after a gunman, Omar Mateen, shot and killed 49 people in a gay nightclub in Orlando, Fla. Mateen was armed with a handgun and a Sig Sauer MCX rifle.
