A public servant should never have to feel like they aren't safe, especially in their own district. But after reading so many stories pointing the finger at right wing conservatives and leaders expressing fear for their lives and families one thing stood out to me:
Our leaders do not feel obligated to protect themselves.
The comments I've seen from leaders lead me to believe that they are now concerned for their safety and acknowledge they don't have security and protection. Well you know what? I don't have a security detail either. But I have weapons for self defense and I know when and how to use them and what the consequences for such actions are. I accept the responsibility of being able to protect myself and my family.
As I understand it, the only representatives that are given protection are the leaders of the chambers (and to be honest I'm not sure why they get it). And that protection is around the clock. Capitol Hill is crawling with police so they're pretty well covered during the day at work.
But what about senator Bob and representative Sally when they are at home in Utah and Kentucky?
Unless they have some special privilege (like not having to accept the public health care option) that prevents them from exercising their 2nd amendment rights there is nothing stopping them from carrying their own weapons for self defense. That goes for their staff, too. Kentucky even has a special section to allow local leaders to carry concealed when others cannot:
KRS § 237.110 (16), concealed carry is prohibited in:Of course that is just affecting concealed carry. There's still nothing stopping a citizen from going to a town/city hall meeting with a holstered firearm on their leg or hip. And there's nothing stopping a leader from doing the same.
(d) Any meeting of the governing body of a county, municipality, or special district; or any meeting of the General Assembly or a committee of the General Assembly, except that nothing in this section shall preclude a member of the body, holding a concealed deadly weapon license, from carrying a concealed deadly weapon at a meeting of the body of which he or she is a member;
Now I don't think we need to go back to the wild West and go around shooting everyone but I do think if the common understanding is that both a leader and their staff has a weapon (even nonlethal tasers / rubber bullets) someone might think twice about walking up and pulling a gun since they probably wouldn't have the opportunity to get away with it.
If we can give guns to pilots we can certainly give them to our leaders. The only problem is if they try to take ours away in the process. And I'm sure it's been said somewhere today and will probably come up many times in the coming days- why don't we just ban guns. In a nation of absurd, reactive security policies it certainly wouldn't surprise me to see this event used as an example to relight that fire.
