James Webb, Senatorial Privilege, and the Right to Keep and Bear Arms

James Webb, the junior Senator from Virginia, has gotten himself caught up in a situation brought about by the carelessness of one of his aids and the dispirit gun laws extant in the part of the country where he works and lives. How the media and the law enforcement establishment are handling the story says much about unofficial Senatorial Privlege, especially if there is a (D) after the Senator's name.

Phil Thompson, an executive assistant to Senator Webb, was caught attempting to take a bag that contained a loaded hand gun and two magazine clips into the Russell Senate Office Building. Thompson told the Capital Police that he had been sent to retrieve the bag for Senator Webb and had been unaware that it contained the weapon and ammunition. Nevertheless he was taken into custody for possession of an unregistered firearm and unregistered ammunition and carrying a pistol without a license. Thompson spent the night in jail, but the following day was released on his personal recognizance, pending a preliminary hearing May 1.

Webb possesses a concealed carry permit in the state of Virginia and therefore can legally possess the weapon in that state. However the District of Columbia forbids the ownership of hand guns or concealed weapons for anyone not in law enforcement. Just to further complicate matters, members of Congress and their aids are allowed hand guns on the Capital grounds so long as they are unloaded and securely wrapped, neither of which was the case. Therefore the staffer and possibly the Senator almost certainly violated DC law and Capital Hill regulations.

Just to stipulate, this writer resides in Texas where the term "gun control" is meant to have a steady aim. DC gun laws are the subject of a constitutional challenge and may ultimately be overturned by the Supreme Court on Second Amendment grounds.