Thanks again for all your kind contributions to our Hullabaloo Holiday! I am so grateful that so many of you stop by to read us every day and support what we do.
The gun issue is one aspect of the culture war that makes me see red. Why in the world should wingnuts be allowed to carry guns inside a secure building with armed guards all around it? It’s not like they need it for self-defense. It’s a ridiculous, uncivilized display of intimidation that has no place in any government building, much less the US Congress.
Several incoming House freshmen have inquired about carrying guns into the Capitol, leading a board overseeing congressional security to rethink a regulation banning members from packing heat under the dome, a House aide with direct knowledge of the board review told Axios.
Why it matters: Some Democratic members say expanded gun carrying on Capitol Hill would be a “provocation” in light of the current political climate. Some Republicans consider it an expression of a citizen’s Second Amendment rights.
The matter will be reviewed by the Capitol Police Board, which consists of the sergeant-at-arms of the House, the sergeant-at-arms and doorkeeper of the Senate, and the Architect of the Capitol, said the House aide. The chief of the Capitol Police also serves on the board.
“The Architect of the Capitol and the Senate sergeant-at-arms are gonna do whatever [Mitch] McConnell wants,” another aide to a top Democratic lawmaker told Axios.
The backstory: The District of Columbia has some of the nation’s strictest gun laws but the Capitol complex is exempt since it’s on federal land. That allows lawmakers to set their own rules.
Members can carry guns into the House and Senate office buildings surrounding the Capitol building.
There’s a ban on carrying them into the House and Senate chambers, the Speaker’s Lobby just off the House floor, as well as other rooms around either chamber, according to a Capitol Police Board document from 1967.
That said, there’s no way to tell if a member violates the rules because they’re allowed to walk around metal detectors when they enter the Capitol. It’s also an open question about whether they can legally carry guns in the Rotunda and other public areas of the building.
Congress recently spent $600 million on a new Capitol Visitors Center, in part to expand the public security perimeter around the House and Senate chambers after a gunman rushed into the building in 1998 and killed two police officers.
Members can bypass all that with their own entrances and wave-through privileges.
In other words, they just want to show off their big, shiny guns in public. It’s disgusting. (I wrote this piece about open carry back in 2014 and it broke the internet for a day or two.)
I suspect the gun issue is going to come back again in a big way soon. Mass shootings seem to come in waves, just like terrorist attacks. And we may have some right wing violence coming our way if they continue to be ramp up their rage.
The good news is that the NRA is completely unraveling which means their most effective propaganda machine is no longer operative. But activism on this issue is going to continue regardless and it’s getting more and more radical like everything else on that side of the political divide. These new politicians are going to be especially confrontational and provocative because that’s just who they are.
I think we all have particular issues that we feel particularly passionate about. This is one for me. The idea that we simply must allow people to carry loaded guns around because of some poorly drafted amendment still boggles my mind. Remember, it was only in 2008 that the Supreme Court recognized an individual right to bear arms, and even some of the conservatives on the court recognized at the time that the state had a right to regulate them.
People using guns in self-defense does happen, but the carnage from gun violence, suicide and accidents far outnumbers those incidents. It’s just completely illogical to me that we can’t seem to find some sort of accommodation on this issue. I don’t think there are very many gun control advocates who are arguing for banning all guns. And yet the gun rights fanatics are insisting on total, unfettered rights to carry all guns, including semi-automatic weapons everywhere.
Anyway, this is going to continue to be a fight. Luckily, the mass shootings we had come to expect every few months has taken a break for the moment (perhaps because of the pandemic.) But the issue isn’t going away.
There are many issues we’ll be covering here over the next year which may have gotten short shrift during he Trump circus. He overwhelmed everything. But we are probably going to re-establish at least some form of politics that addresses real issues that effect people lives, like gun violence, economics, health care, immigration etc and we’ll be here to try to help you sort out the players and their positions as we work through it. None of us are “my team right or wrong” types, so we’ll be tough on the Democrats when they deserve it. And needless to say, we’ll be watching the Republicans like hawks.
If you’d like to help us do that by contributing to our Hullabaloo fundraiser this year, I would be most appreciative. It means the world to me.
Happy Hollandaise, everyone!
cheers,
digby