The new Virginia Senator had some splainin to do. From the Washington Post:
A top aide to Sen. James Webb was charged yesterday with trying to carry a loaded pistol and extra ammunition into a Senate office building, U.S. Capitol Police said.
The staffer, Phillip Thompson, told police that the gun belonged to Webb (D-Va.), authorities said. Thompson also said he forgot that the gun was in a briefcase and meant no harm, they said.
Now this was surely a mistake, and it seems obvious that Thompson's explanation was genuine. It looks to me a bit harsh, that is correct, for Thompson to have to spend the night in the slammer.
But Webb is a bit eccentric. When questioned about the incident, on camera, he would not say whether it was his gun or not. And then began weaving a flag and giving a NRA speech. From Fox:
"I believe that it's important — it's important for me, personally, and for a lot of people in the situation that I'm in, to be able to defend myself and my family," Webb said. "Since 9/11 for people who are in government I think in general there has been an agreement that it's a more dangerous time. Again, I'm not going to comment, again, with great specificity about how I defend myself, but I do feel that I have that right."
Handguns are illegal in Washington, D.C., but nearby Virginia allows residents to carry concealed handguns. Capitol Police rules allow members and their employees to bring a weapon onto Capitol grounds if it is unloaded and securely wrapped. In this case, it was allegedly neither.
Senator Webb has a right to carry a gun in Virginia. I am happy with that. But does he really need it because of 9/11? And isn't it one of the chief responsibilities of gun owners that they handled their weapons carefully and properly as the law requires? Might that not include knowing where your gun is?
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