Freshman Senator James Webb of Virginia has been a loose cannon since his election, with his most memorable lowlight being a gratuitous display of rudeness and bad manners to the President. Now it has become evident that the loose cannon also apparently carries one around with him. One of his aides was arrested by Capitol Police for carrying a loaded semi-automatic pistol with a couple of extra loaded mags for good measure. The aide's explanation was that he had delivered Webb to the airport and been given the weapon by Webb and forgot he was carrying it.
This incident raises many questions, beginning with why does a United States Senator feel the need to go around armed like Rambo? I'd also be interested in what else this aide is used to carrying so that toting around a pistol and extra mags seemed to make zero impression on him. Suddenly Cynthia McKinney doesn't seem so odd.
Since the U.S. Court of Appeals just declared the District of Columbia's gun ban unconstitutional, I have to wonder what authority the police have to charge him with violating an unconstitutional law. Of course there is a certain rich irony in a staffer for the party which has made gun control a virtual obssession being busted for carrying a loaded weapon into the Capitol.
I feel a certain sympathy for the aide, who no doubt made an innocent mistake. However, I don't see how the government can avoid prosecuting him, not when they send ordinary citizens to jail for such oversights. Or when they send Border Patrol guards to prison for ten years for trumped up gun offenses. The Bush Justice Department has been very consistent in prosecuting Republican officials to the maximum extent of the law while it seems totally uninterested in prosecuting crooked democrats. So at least Webb's beleagured aide can have that to fall back on.
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Webb Aide Arrested for Gun Possession
Mar 26 06:19 PM US/Eastern
WASHINGTON (AP) - An aide to Sen. Jim Webb was arrested Monday when he entered a Senate office building with a loaded pistol belonging to the senator.
Capitol Police spokeswoman Sgt. Kimberly Schneider said the aide was charged with carrying a pistol without a license and possessing an unregistered firearm and unregistered ammunition.
The office of Webb, D-Va., identified the aide as Phillip Thompson and said he was "a former Marine, a long-term friend and trusted employee of the senator."
A congressional official briefed on the incident said Webb gave the gun to Thompson when the assistant drove him to an airport earlier in the day. Thompson, upon entering the Senate building, forgot he was carrying the weapon.
"To our knowledge, this incident was an oversight," Webb's office said in a statement. It said it had no other details.
The weapon was revealed when the aide went through an X-ray machine at an entrance of the Russell Senate Office Building, Schneider said. She said the man had a loaded pistol with two additional loaded magazines.
This incident raises many questions, beginning with why does a United States Senator feel the need to go around armed like Rambo? I'd also be interested in what else this aide is used to carrying so that toting around a pistol and extra mags seemed to make zero impression on him. Suddenly Cynthia McKinney doesn't seem so odd.
Since the U.S. Court of Appeals just declared the District of Columbia's gun ban unconstitutional, I have to wonder what authority the police have to charge him with violating an unconstitutional law. Of course there is a certain rich irony in a staffer for the party which has made gun control a virtual obssession being busted for carrying a loaded weapon into the Capitol.
I feel a certain sympathy for the aide, who no doubt made an innocent mistake. However, I don't see how the government can avoid prosecuting him, not when they send ordinary citizens to jail for such oversights. Or when they send Border Patrol guards to prison for ten years for trumped up gun offenses. The Bush Justice Department has been very consistent in prosecuting Republican officials to the maximum extent of the law while it seems totally uninterested in prosecuting crooked democrats. So at least Webb's beleagured aide can have that to fall back on.
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Webb Aide Arrested for Gun Possession
Mar 26 06:19 PM US/Eastern
WASHINGTON (AP) - An aide to Sen. Jim Webb was arrested Monday when he entered a Senate office building with a loaded pistol belonging to the senator.
Capitol Police spokeswoman Sgt. Kimberly Schneider said the aide was charged with carrying a pistol without a license and possessing an unregistered firearm and unregistered ammunition.
The office of Webb, D-Va., identified the aide as Phillip Thompson and said he was "a former Marine, a long-term friend and trusted employee of the senator."
A congressional official briefed on the incident said Webb gave the gun to Thompson when the assistant drove him to an airport earlier in the day. Thompson, upon entering the Senate building, forgot he was carrying the weapon.
"To our knowledge, this incident was an oversight," Webb's office said in a statement. It said it had no other details.
The weapon was revealed when the aide went through an X-ray machine at an entrance of the Russell Senate Office Building, Schneider said. She said the man had a loaded pistol with two additional loaded magazines.
