I’M SURE WE’LL HEAR MORE COMPLAINTS ABOUT A WAR ON THE FIRST AMENDMENT, BUT HEY — THE CONSTITUTION IS A LIVING, BREATHING DOCUMENT THAT MUST CHANGE WITH THE TIMES, RIGHT? Katie Couric sued over deceptive editing in gun control documentary.

Katie Couric and director Stephanie Soechtig are being sued for defamation after they inappropriately edited their gun-control documentary to make gun-rights activists look bad.

Back in May, Stephen Gutowski of the Washington Free Beacon released audio from Couric’s interview with gun-rights group Virginia Citizens Defense League, which was interviewed by Couric and Soechtig for their documentary, “Under the Gun.” In the film, Couric asks members of the group: “If there are no background checks for gun purchasers, how do you prevent felons or terrorists from purchasing a gun?”

In the movie, the group members appear to sit in silence for nine agonizing seconds afterward, apparently unable to come up with an answer. But the audio Gutowski provided shows that the members of the group did immediately give answers to Couric’s question. Right away, they began discussing background checks and the “classes of people” who are already legally barred from owning a firearm, and various issues pertaining to pre-emptive law enforcement.

“So, what we’re really asking about is a question of prior restraint,” one says. How can we prevent future crime by identifying bad guys before they do anything bad? And, the simple answer is you can’t. And, particularly, under the legal system we have in the United States, there are a lot of Supreme Court opinions that say, ‘No, prior restraint is something that the government does not have the authority to do.’ Until there is an overt act that allows us to say, ‘That’s a bad guy,’ then you can’t punish him.”

Yet in the film, it appears no one in the group has an answer to Couric’s question.

Now VCDL is suing Couric and Soechtig for “false and defamatory footage,” according to a copy of the lawsuit obtained by the gun-rights website Bearing Arms. VCDL alleges in the lawsuit that Couric and Soechtig “manipulated the footage in service of an agenda: They wanted to establish that there is no basis for opposing universal background checks by fooling viewers into believing that even a panel of pro-Second Amendment advocates could not provide one.”

VCDL claimed Couric and Soechtig “acted with actual malice” by telling members of the group to sit silently for 10 seconds while they allegedly calibrated recording equipment. It was this clip, the group believes, that was used in the film to make them appear unable to answer the question.

It’s not a crazy claim. The First Amendment gives publishers the benefit of the doubt, but it doesn’t provide a get-out-of-court-free card when, you know, there’s not much doubt.