I lived for 3.5 years in Arlington, VA. I came to realize after a few months that DC (just two miles from my apartment) was "another land". Once you crossed the river.....general logic and the standards of life that I'd be accustomed to.....simply didn't exist. This week, I was reminded of this problem.
A picture came out with two Republican congressmen....holding a colorful red, white, and blue AR-15 automatic rifle. They were doing a benefit deal in DC and the weapon was to be the prize for those who bought raffle tickets. The picture? Well.....it got out into the DC press (the city DC, not the federal DC), and pretty quickly.....the city DC's Attorney General got all hyped up.
You see, in the city DC (not the federal DC).....there are the strictest gun rules in America. This helps in various ways to control the killing efforts in DC (the city, not the federal DC) and limit deaths to approximately 110 murders a year (I won't say that these are all gun related....some are done by knife, hammer, or beatings). If you figure the six by six mile area.....then do the statistical averages.....it's a fair amount of killing. I should note.....most of this killing takes place in the city DC, not the federal DC.
So the city DC's Attorney General got fired up and went to the capital police. Note....the capital police don't work for the DC city police.....the capital police work for federal government. The photo of the gun on DC grounds was immediate evidence in their mind of some no-good going on.
Well....Representative Ken Buck got the call and kinda noted that he'd done all the fine paperwork required by the capital police (not the DC city police). The capital police kinda agreed.
In fact, at this point.....the capital police let the DC city police know of this little funny rule. ANY Senator or Congressman.....Democratic or Republican....by the rules of House and Senate.....are allowed to keep weapons in their office (UNLOADED, naturally).
Now, it should be noted that you can't walk into any chamber or public meeting area within the House or Senate with your gun. There are precise rules against that type of behavior.
However, every single one of these elected officials can hold weapons within their office areas. Not just one or a dozen, but they could legally hold hundreds of guns if so desired.
I'm guessing the DC city police (not the capital police) are a bit disturbed by this.....thinking their city rules and procedures would guarantee DC (the city, not the federal DC) to be gun-free. They were wrong.
Now, you might ask this stupid question.....in the last two-hundred years, with all these guns laying around the capital with these Senators and Congressmen.....has there ever been some incident that caused someone to get shot (intentionally or by accident)? No.
What if some idiot fringe group got a couple of whacked up individuals into the federal building and attempted to threaten any Senator or Congressman? I'm pretty sure that each guy or gal would pull out their arms.....open up the box of ammo....and lay some efficient layers of defense beyond what the capital police or DC city police could offer.
Some people will sit there and start to worry about this. Frankly, on my list of 1,000 things to worry about.....this rates around 6,438. Now, if these idiots were keeping sticks of dynamite or cranking up chain-saws in their office to 'show-off'.....I'd prioritize things higher and move this to around number 466.
