ABC Funds Omar Samaha Gun Show Buying Spree

Last year when the Virginia Crime Commission was studying the "Gun Show Loophole," Omar Samaha, the brother of a Virginia Tech victim, testified that he wanted to see for himself how easy it is to buy a gun at a gun show. He told the commission that he walked into a Richmond area gun show and was immediately greeted with offers from "unlicensed gun dealers."

On the heels of two shootings from last week, ABC decided to trot out a story they have apparently been working on for over a year. And thanks to ABC, we now know where Mr. Samaha got his funding for his investigation of gun shows. According to this Good Morning America story, ABC News followed Mr. Samaha for "the better part of a year" giving him $5000 to see what he could buy.

Well at least that explains why Samaha thought nothing of buying guns and then turning them over to the police (according to his crime commission testimony). I wondered why anyone would take one's own money and basically throw it away by buying items one had no intention of keeping. It wasn't his money. He apparently did not deem it important to share that part of his story as all of the press accounts tended to follow the line used in the Washington Post.

I guess ABC is more interested finding an individual with a cause to help set up a story with a preordained outcome rather than talk to a gun show promoter and do a story that shows what really happens at gun shows.

It is my understanding this is the first of a series that Good Morning America is running all week.