BELLEVUE, WA – The Second Amendment Foundation is today calling for a Justice Department investigation of possible illegal firearms transactions apparently involving an unidentified producer of Katie Couric’s “Under the Gun” film that were revealed four months ago by director Stephanie Soechtig during an interview on the BYOD program on TheLipTV.
In this interview, Soechtig tells BYOD host Ondi Timoner, “We sent a producer out and he was from Colorado. He went to Arizona, and he was able to buy a Bushmaster and then three other pistols without a background check in a matter of four hours. And that’s perfectly legal. He wasn’t doing some sort of underground market.”
But founder and Executive Vice President Alan M. Gottlieb pointed out that transactions described by Soechtig really aren’t legal at all. He added that no amount of “walking back” the allegation Soechtig made on camera is going to square her or Couric, or the unidentified producer, with existing federal law.
“There can only be two explanations for this,” Gottlieb explained. “Either federal gun laws were violated, or Soechtig made the whole thing up. If the latter is true, then her credibility just went out the window, taking Couric’s along with it. If the former is true, and the unidentified producer actually did buy the guns, and if he was sent to do that – as Soechtig’s remarks imply – then that’s possible evidence of a criminal conspiracy, or at the very least being an accessory.
“Unfortunately for Couric and Soechtig, their credibility is already in shambles because of the now-infamous eight second silence that never happened between Couric and members of the Virginia Citizen’s Defense League,” he continued. “The apparent inability of VCDL members to respond to Couric’s question about background checks was a complete editing fabrication, and everybody knows it. We don’t consider Couric’s subsequent explanation to be an apology, either. At this point, anything they say is questionable.
“For Soechtig to claim that buying guns in the manner described is legal takes either remarkable audacity or monumental stupidity,” Gottlieb said. “The fact that she also used the discredited argument that 40 percent of gun sales happen without background checks adds to the suspicious nature of the production. The only way to sort this out is with a full DOJ investigation, which we think should begin promptly.”