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« More on Guliani on guns | Main | Crime Stats and a con job »

Jim Webb staffer incident

Posted by David Hardy · 26 March 2007 08:36 PM

Word in DC is that a staffer of Sen. Jim Webb was arrested for carrying pistol, possibly his own, into a Senate building. I thought Webb showed great potential for becoming the Right Sort of Democrat, and this tends to confirm it.

14 Comments | Leave a comment

Letalis | March 26, 2007 8:46 PM | Reply

If the press reports are right, the outrageous thing about the story is that members of Congress have the right to possess firearms on federal property when no other non-law enforcement federal employees have such a right. I am a federal agency attorney out in the field (a/k/a the real world) and we do not have any security at all in our building. While I have a CCW permit, my state specifically prohibits the carrying of a CW in a government office building. Hell, if I carry a pocket knife with a blade of less than 2.5" long into my office building, I am technically in violation of federal law.

Equal rights under the law, I say!

Robert | March 26, 2007 9:19 PM | Reply

Prosecute to the fullest. If citizens have to jump through hoops and twist into pretzels to do the governments bidding, so should other citizens who happen to work for congressmen. Let the congressmen change the law if they don't like it.

And while they are at it, I wish someone would ask for the import papers for Saddam's Highpower pistol that Bush keeps in the Oval Office, plus his permit. The troops certainly can't bring anything back.

Don Hamrick | March 26, 2007 9:51 PM | Reply

CURRENTLY THE MOST IMPORTANT SECOND AMENDMENT CASES:

ARKANSAS Hamrick's Civil Case: Possession in open carry of a handgun in intrastate and interstate travel.

ARKANSAS Fincher's Criminal Case: Criminal Case: Possession of a homemade machinegun for militia service and/or non-militia service.

DC Parker's Civil Case: Possession of firearms in the home.

DC Thompson's Criminal Case: Possession of a handgun (1) outside the home, (2) in a federal building.

I say those 4 cases present a well rounded frontal attack on State and Federal gun control laws. Do I dare declare that we have the Federal Government on the Defensive? Or will the belligerence of the Federal Courts and the U.S. Department of Justice prevail?

Chris | March 26, 2007 11:28 PM | Reply

The AP story:

http://www.breitbart.com/article.php?id=D8O44EEG0&show_article=1

According to the story the pistol and magazines belonged to Webb, who handed them over to his assitant when Webb was dropped off at the airport. That's not terribly responsible of Webb to hand over his pistol to someone that does not have reasonable cognizence (sp?) of the various gun laws bewteen Virginia and DC.

I nearly had a heart attack when I was carrying (legally) concealed in Virginia and a wrong turn put my wife and I on a bridge into DC. My only recourse was to sweat, explain the situation clearly to my wife in case of an incident, and find the nearest and fastest route to Virginia.

Because this is a federal office building I'm guessing it's not relevant (yet) under Parker because Parker challenged DC's gun ban, not the federal gun ban on federal property.

As far as gun rights are concerned, this is not a positive case or incident for the community, but it will be interesting to see the press spin in regards to the treatment of the (D) Senator that won back Virginia.

bill | March 27, 2007 6:55 AM | Reply

The simple fact is DC gun law prevents PEOPLE, all PEOPLE from carrying a gun, wrapped, unwrapped, in fish paper, anyway -- Period. The Congress gives no special privileges to it's own, does it? And how about staffers?


This guy "meant no harm", yeah well I don't think so, prosecute him, who knows what he was really doing. For all I know he was going to make good on Webb's desire to punch out the President.


If this was Joe six pack strolling down the street, what would the police do to them? Do the same to the staffer.


How does Webb walk around DC with a gun? Spin it boys, you going to need all the help you can to get your comrade out of this one.

Roger.45 | March 27, 2007 8:00 AM | Reply

Let's see how Teddy Kennedy, Diane Feinstein, Charles Shumer, Carolyn McCarthy, and too many others to list handle this one. I can hear the silence now.

Only those of privilige, and 12 million illegal immigrants, can violate the law with no consequence.

Get used to it.

anon | March 27, 2007 8:38 AM | Reply

Legally, the aide is in deep ----, but as he is part of the ruling class, nothing will happen to him. The usual suspects will be 'outraged' for the benefit of the press, and it will be quietly forgotten.

BTW: It is definitely illegal for a DC resident to lend/loan/rent a [legally registered] gun to someone else. It's not clear to me if that presents a problem for Webb as (according to the story) he turned the gun over to the aide while in VA. Certainly, I would like to see Webb up to his nose in it as well - but I know that's not going to happen.

David Adams | March 27, 2007 10:11 AM | Reply

Webb is a bully and as much as the gun rights community needs pro-gun Dems, Webb will do us more harm than good. Webb is no Zell Miller.

Rudy DiGiacinto | March 27, 2007 12:45 PM | Reply

According to Fox news, The Aide has hired Richard Gardiner as his attorney. As many of you know, Richard Gardiner is a constituttional Law lawyer and I believe helped on the first D.C. gun ban case before Parker.

Letalis | March 27, 2007 3:09 PM | Reply

Webb is not handling this very well. His statements make him look terribly elitist.

30yearprof | March 27, 2007 4:34 PM | Reply

The aide said it's Webb's gun. Now, Webb denies that. He's letting his good soldier fall on his grenade. Webb writes a good story but he doesn't live up to his own fiction.

Alan Gura | March 27, 2007 6:58 PM | Reply

Parker was the first case.

Gardiner was an attorney in Seegars, filed months after our case, but decided first.

Gildas | March 27, 2007 9:45 PM | Reply

And while they are at it, I wish someone would ask for the import papers for Saddam's Highpower pistol that Bush keeps in the Oval Office, plus his permit. The troops certainly can't bring anything back.

Sigh. The troops certainly can bring things like that back, and many have. You just fill out the appropriate ATF form for an import.

Where some have got into deep trouble is bringing back things without the paperwork OR bringing back full-autos which thanks to the Hughes Amendment you can't get the paperwork to do.

Andy Freeman | March 30, 2007 6:39 PM | Reply

Webb's silence suggests that he's going to make the same transition from pro-gun to ignoring guns (at best) or mildly anti-gun (more common).

It's the transition that Dems make when they try to become "national". Gore did the same thing.

If Webb doesn't do it, he'll be one of the few (only) to buck the pattern. If he makes this transition, he'll only validate the position that Dems can't be trusted on guns, no matter what folks (like Webb) who can't get elected locally as anything other than pro-gun do.

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