After surviving the attack on the GOP baseball team practice on Wednesday morning, Representative Barry Loudermilk (R-Ga.) has come out swinging for gun license reciprocity — partially, anyway. The Peach State representative wants gun license reciprocity, but only for members of Congress. As The Daily Caller reports:
“I think we need to look at some kind of reciprocity for members here, but also we need to look at security detail if Scalise hadn’t been on our team it would have been really bad,” Loudermilk told reporters. “You know, at what point do you have a congregation of members — and we’re not any more special anybody else but we are targets — do you have a security detail with you then.”
Loudermilk said had the attack happened in his home state, they would likely have had the resources to protect themselves.
“I think there are several things to look at– first of all if this had happened to Georgia he wouldn’t have he wouldn’t have gotten too far,” he continued. “I had a staff member who was in his car maybe 20 yards behind the shooter who was pinned in his car who back in Georgia carries a 9-millimeter in his car. I carry a weapon. He had a clear shot at it. But here we’re not we’re not allowed to carry any weapons here.”
The Congressman is factually wrong on a few points. The baseball practice took place in the Commonwealth of Virginia, a “shall issue” state for both residents and non-residents (and which recognizes all out of state licenses, according to the VSP.) Although a “may issue, and jump through a lot of hoops along the way” zone, the District of Columbia does officially issue licenses to non-residents as well.
While the hill to climb to get approval in D.C. is indeed steep, it’s not completely impossible, and I know a small businessman who managed to get a non-resident license from the District because he occasionally does business there. You’d have to think that Congressfolk would have sufficient pull in the District to get a license to carry if they actually go through the lengthy and frustrating gun license application process.
I’ll forgive that ignorance — firearms laws can be confusing enough before you start crossing state lines — going over a border increases the complexity by a factor of three. I’m still learning the law of my own newly-adopted state of Michigan and I’ve been here a year. What’s less forgivable is Rep. Loudermilk’s insistence on a carve-out, the “some animals are more equal than others” path of license reciprocity.
Why would Loudermilk call for Congressional reciprocity, when there’s a perfectly good bill waiting approval, introduced in January by Rep. Hudson, that would accomplish this for everyone? The bill has been co-sponsored by more representatives (196) than there are Dems currently elected to the House (193), so its prospects seem strong. He obviously knows about the bill, because he’s one of the co-sponsors.
Maybe this is his way of turning up the heat on his colleagues across the aisle, getting them acclimated to the idea of reciprocity. Maybe he’s still a little shell-shocked after realizing, as Rand Paul said, that they were out in the open during the shooting and would have been massacred if the House Majority Whip hadn’t been on the scene with his Capitol Police security detail.
Or maybe he thinks Rep. Hudson’s reciprocity bill isn’t going to pass and wants to be able to carry a gun without jumping through all the usual hoops.
That’s arguably an understandable reaction. But Rep. Loudermilk and his colleagues shouldn’t forget that the rest of us want to be able to protect ourselves when we visit the nation’s capital, too. In fact, it might be a good learning experience if Congressmen who are worried about their own personal safety had to endure the many insults and indignities of the DC application process just as any citizen would.
Let them see what the rest of us have to go through to exercise a basic human — not to mention civil — right. If they want to enact firearms reciprocity, let it be for all Americans, not just the select and powerful few.
I’ll condense the Congressman’s words for those of us so inclined:
“All animals are equal. Some animals are more equal than others”.
Edit: I see the author already used the second sentence in his article. Good job.
Also a favorite:
“There was something called liberalism. Parliament, if you know what that was, passed a law against it. The records survive. Speeches about liberty of the subject. Liberty to be inefficient and miserable. Freedom to be a round peg in a square hole.”
I called his office directly 1-770-429-1776 (1776, how ironic)and told his staffer, politely, that I was disappointed that he did not talk about the National Reciprocity bill that he was listed on that would allow all of us the ability to defend ourselves in a similar situation. Instead, I told him, I was extremely disappointed that Loudermilk only talked about a special carve out for “special” people like him and other congressmen. Then I thanked him and hung up.
Good call. I just called too. The nice lady actually told me he’s one of the co sponsers of the bill for reciprocity for everyone.
Snail mail is the best way to make a point. They can’t just hit the delete button.
From what I’ve heard; calling, leaving an E-mail and snail mail are all counted by the Congress critters
Yeah but they would rather keep the paper clutter down so it would behoove them to get moving on an issue expeditiously.
Sure, snail mail has the greatest impact, but texting and calling is also tallied by the Congress people as a way to guage the response of the voting public. When the phones are melting about the next gun control bill, they take note, along with texts and mail. It all counts.
Excellent, they recognize the dangerous world out there and the need for self defense but only for their high and mighty selves
Shove it
Yep, fuck em. They get too many carve outs as it is they are already exempt from our mess of health care bullshit.
I called it first. The sentiment doesn’t go far enough, but it’s a foot in the door. Got to move the football down the field, so to speak.
Yay Georgia!
Like Law Enforcement Officers Safety Act (LEOSA) is a ‘foot in the door’ for us all, by giving The Only Ones special treatment and slamming the door in the faces of their employers?
A foot in the door? The door to where?
LEOSA is, if anything, a foot to the backsides of all of us less-equal peons.
I didn’t vote for my LEOs. My congressmen will hear from me.
I don’t think this is a foot in the door. If all service members were granted the right, that would be a foot in the door. This is just a politician saying he shouldn’t have to abide by his own laws (or, more broadly, the laws that his governing body passed).
I’m not in Laudermilk’s district, and I don’t know what his CR rating is, but I do know how Washington works. Had he come out and called for full scale reciprocity, or better yet, Constitutional carry, you know the backlash from the other half would be calling him a right wing nut waving the bloody jersey, politicizing a tragedy for gain.
Because…projection.
Let them have their guns, then vote in conservatives that will play the “equal protection” card.
I’m torn between calling it a good first step or being angry at their selfish focus.
Take my approach. Be both.
It only has potential as a good first step if we’re on the same path. Unfortunately, this path just leads to more special attention for special people.
That path not only leads in a different direction from the one that expands firearms freedom for us, it may actually stunt progress on our path. Once these politicians get theirs, they have no further interest in the topic. I would oppose reciprocity in this form.
Let the political leaders endure the same risks and indignities the rest of us do. That’s a better way to prompt action toward enhancing freedom for all, than is to give these people a special carve out and hope their generosity will somehow, some day extend to us.
FLAME DELETED. Virginia recognizes ALL State CCWs.
” Permit Reciprocity and Recognition
As of July 1, 2016, pursuant to Virginia Code Section 18.2-308.014, the holder of a valid concealed handgun or concealed weapon permit or license issued by another state1 may carry a concealed handgun in Virginia provided all of the below conditions are met:
The holder of such permit or license is at least 21 years of age.
The permit or license holder carries a valid photo-identification issued by a government agency of any state or by the U.S. Department of Defense or U.S. Department of State.
The holder displays the permit or license and the government issued photo-identification upon demand by a law-enforcement officer.
The permit or license holder has not previously had a Virginia concealed handgun permit revoked.”
The only time it would be an issue is the person from Georgia is under 21 and over 18 and in the military since Georgia would issue a license to them.
Took me five minutes to Google. Sheesh.
How about D.C.?
DC is another matter as he said but the issue was about Virginia not DC.
He already addressed about carrying in DC. Hard as hell.
Not quite. If your job takes you into D.C., you are as effectively disarmed as if you didn’t have a license. I doubt this guy, like most people, would swing by some apartment or other location outside of D.C. to pick up a handgun for a baseball game only to drop it off again to go back to work. Anybody who works in a gun-free zone has the same problem.
” If your job takes you into D.C., you are as effectively disarmed as if you didn’t have a license.”
If your job takes you into D.C., you are as effectively served up on a platter to the people who don’t give the same flying F as you do about the law, as if you didn’t have a license.
There, fixed ya Cracker.
CONGRESS makes ALL the rules for DC. They just need to do so. It is WAY passed the time for adults to tell the crooked progtards that have run DC for decades to STFU.
Yeah, not safe at baseball practice where you purposefully avoided protection and bunched yourselves up tight enough for some yahoo to take you all out with one hand grenade???
Where’s the chain to pull the plug to drain the swamp?
PUSH K-STREET OUTSIDE OF THE D.C. LOOP @ MINIMUM. QUIT MAKING IT SO “FUN” AND “LUCRATIVE” AND “A _ _ – KISSY” IN WASHINGTON.
IF YOU CAN’T CAMPAIGN OR RALLY WITHIN 500′ OF A POLLING PLACE, YOU SHOULDN’T BE ALLOWED TO SET UP EVEN A LOBBYING TENT WITHIN 500 MILES OF D.C.
Virginia reciprocity is meaningless if the Congressman was heading to Capitol Hill after practice. As soon as you are over the Potomac, you are breaking DC gun laws (DC owns the entire river & a chunk of reclaimed land in Nova near Pentagon/Arlington Cem).
Pass national reciprocity law to fix this for everyone.
It’s OK, Obamaidiot is still in D.C. he’ll set up an ISIS run gun-check station at the border.
You’re right. There was a miscommunication in editing. I’ve fixed it. Thanks.
I thought instantly that it was a sad situation where it was a field full of *REPUBLICANS* attacked, and not a damn one was armed! Now I understand, and I hope a bunch of them address this stupidity.
For those who think that VA’s laws are what governs, here, ALL these participants work in DC, stopping at the VA line every day to drop off/pick up your EDC is not real practical, which is precisely the problem reciprocity is intended to address.
What part of “representative” don’t you get?
“Representative” implies they are one of us. You know better than that….
My comment was directed at the Representative.
The land of different laws for different folks can be the USA’s new motto.
If fedzilla passes such a law which bestows reciprocity only on Congressmen, then we should be able to strike that down in court under the line of the U.S. Constitution which states we cannot grant titles of nobility. The outcome would be interesting: either the court declares their entire law null-and-void or the court strikes the part of their law stating that reciprocity only applies to Congressmen … meaning the law should apply to everyone at that point.
Equal protection jumped out at me.
Nobility? I’m missing something in that argument.
Could TTAG forward these comments to the Rep?
The bigger issue they’d have would be the law on carrying in federal buildings. I suppose they could leave them hidden in their cars parked in the Capitol garage, but that still leaves a (metal detectored) point of exposure.
Lot of loose weapon (non-positive) control there. Trust me. If I had the $$$ I’d buy all of you a ‘truck-gun’, and I really LOVE the IDEA of a truck gun, but if everyone had one a parking lot would look like a free gun store to most idiot perps.
Perhaps the Congressman should be informed about how many of us great unwashed are attacked annually compared to attacks on Congresscritters. And, perhaps, that Congress can’t legitimately pass laws that benefit themselves and not the nation.
Animal House by Orwell. Send him a tweet.
Did you mean Animal Farm not House?
Poor baby. I wish I cared…
So here’s what you do, congressional jellyfish.
All of you, bring your guns to D.C. Let’s see if the Capitol Police arrest all of you.
Since the USCP answers to the Legislative branch (that’s you, Congressional idiots), not the Executive, I’ll wager that the USCP policy will change before the next budget is passed.
Perhaps the Congressman should read the Constitution to which he took a oath.
Ar 1 Sec 6 They shall in all cases, except treason, felony and breach of the peace, be privileged from arrest during their attendance at the session of their respective Houses, and in going to and returning from the same; and for any speech or debate in either House, they shall not be questioned in any other place.
No restriction that a state might create regarding “keep and bear arms” has any relevance to him.
“… except treason, felony and breach of the peace …”
Well, if D.C. says it is a felony or a “breach of the peace” to have a handgun without a D.C. license, then Article 1, Section 6 doesn’t help our Congressmen.
Perhaps a little congressional civil disobedience is in order. If the entire republican caucus showed up armed, it would be interesting to see how things might shake out.
If he lives in DC or MD it hardly matters if Virginia recognizes a Georgia carry license. Since he is my Congressman, I will be calling Loudermilk shortly to tell him he needs to support the nation consealed carry bill, not come up with a special bill for Congressmen.
A very selfish gesture.
Demonstrates who is more important.
I would have (grudgingly) accepted a practical reciprocity argument for anyone living and working in different states and whose trade and livelihood takes them outside their 2A-friendly municipality. This would cover Congress and also likely millions of other Americans.
What he suggested is selfish, elitist, and unsupportable.
kinda reminds me of hill at having a full defnse, saying we should give up our rights…. just sayin.
I would point out th the congressman that anyone with a valid CCW could have stopped the attack. Would he have felt slighted if a random out of state CCW had stopped the attack instead? There are a lot more of us than of them.
“Maybe this is his way of turning up the heat on his colleagues across the aisle, getting them acclimated to the idea of reciprocity.” We PotG need to think strategically, not tactically. I don’t know if his intention is to “get[ ] them acclimated to the idea of reciprocity”. It’s a reasonable conjecture; but not more.
Every carve-out for some special case moves the ball incrementally toward OUR goal-posts. LEOSA was a Congressional determination that some NON-employees of governments ought to carry. The Interstate Armored-Car Drivers law was a determination that some people (armored-car drivers) who had never been police ought to carry based on their home (actually work) State’s criteria for licensing them. This is a proposal to allow Congressmen to carry based (again) on home-state CWPs. In each such carve-out they are conceding that people other than government employees ought to carry.
Sooner or later, the pressure will build to bring National Reciprocity in some form to the floors of both chambers. At that point, our representatives will be in a good position to call-out the hypocrisy of all the carve-outs – while at the same time defending Won’t-Issue States. Being called-out on hypocrisy, those on the brink of voting yea or nay will be hard-pressed to face their constituents with a nay vote. When our enemy is about to make a mistake, let him proceed.
The tactical thinkers want to protest TODAY, not after they pass their hypocritical carve-out. OK, go ahead. Send these Congressmen who would like to carry to the DC police chief who will cheerfully issue them a DC permit. They will all easily get a VA permit, again, in secret. And, they will probably manage to get a MD permit, in secret. Great! Now, these Congressmen will have achieved their “carve-out” in secret; and, we won’t be able to make an issue of it.
This might make sense if it’s a tactical maneuver to get people talking about this, then substitute in everyone when the bill is introduced or amended. But I doubt this sort of thing would help move the ball forward much, since the affected population is so small and already views itself as separate and above from everyone else.
“Why would Loudermilk call for Congressional reciprocity,”
Frankly, I expected something like this. One of the hallmarks of managed societies is an artificially maintained status system that elevates people of otherwise modest abilities and makes the “special”. In the old Soviet Union there was the “nomenklatura” which consisted of petty bureaucrats with connections who were given special privileges that other people were denied. It was political connections and rarely real ability that made the difference. In this country, cops and members of the political elite are similarly “special”. What Loudermilk did is disgusting.
No more special classes of citizens. I demand equal protection under the law.
LOUDERMILK’S COMMENTS ARE IGNORANT FOR MANY REASONS.
Not the least of which is that, while the VA shooter was another POS Communist (D) plant, and inside man / shill, likely on the evil (D) payroll (allegation at least as true as any against president Donald J. Trump). He was a “HOMEGROWN TERRORIST” as our past POS presididn’t OHOLE was always wont to rail against.
It could have just as easily been a CRACK ISIS OBAMA-INVITE OPEN-BORDERS DREAMER TEAM DOING AN AWAY GAME, AND THE U.S. WOULD HAVE LOOKED [TO THE WHOLE FING REST OF THE POS WORLD] LIKE THE “JV TEAM” WHILE YOU ALL GOT VIDEOTAPED GETTING YOUR STUPID FING HEADS CUT OFF.
F ALL OF YOU.
FL concealed carry law prohibits carrying in (among other locations):
9. Any school, college, or professional athletic event not related to firearms;
Would this exclusion include the Congressional Charity baseball game if held in FL?
How about a normal (civilian) inter-office corporate baseball game or bowling competition?
Because congressmen are special snowflakes that are more equal than others. What a classic good old boy this guy is. Can’t stand these immoral idiots.
This guy’s assistant was in a car? Behind the shooter? Anyone else see a disconnect in logical thinking here? Channel you inner jihadist and RUN THE GUY OVER!!! These people truly are the dumbest individuals if they can’t realize a car can do way more damage than a rifle.
I’ve got a fair bit of experience with carrying in the DC area. I had federal credentials that allowed me to carry, but also got one of the first Virginia ‘shall issue’ carry permits when those were implemented.
Carrying in DC for most is a calculated decision – is the potential protection worth the penalty of a felony charge? It’s a tough calculus. In DC, the penalty is “mandatory minimum sentence of one year and up to 10 years behind bars.” And believe me, the Correctional Treatment Facility in SE DC is no picnic for a middle aged white guy.
I no longer have federal credentials and live on the west coast. I have the usual civil carry permits – Utah, Florida, and a couple individual states that don’t recognize any other permits. Getting a non-resident carry permit in DC is pretty much impossible unless you live in Virginia or Maryland. So last week, on a business trip to DC, I faced the usual risk/reward decision. I chose to leave my carry gear at my Virginia hotel when business would take me to the District.
Not optimal – but it’s the same choice those Representatives had. We need national reciprocity for all.
Since the US Congress has a direct effect on the politicians in DC, why don’t they force the DC politicians to remove all the hopes that are put in the way of those who wish to carry concealed?
Another point even if the congressmen/ladies do get to carry concealed they can’t carry in the government building because government building are gun free zones.
Hmmm
To hell with everybody else….I want mine! Oh when a politician suffers the fate of the ‘little’ people -they want something done, and now!
Fair points and I agree with the ones made in the article. But a weird part of me feels off because this is an elected official not calling for more gun control and rather looking to lax laws (even if it’s a politican carve out)
Thanks for the subtle shout out.
I’ve got to renew my DC permit in November, I’ll let you know how it goes.
I can’t see the name Loudermilk without picturing some weird brand of milk that comes in various vibrant colors.
What an Idea, Hell of an idea!
How about we open it up beyond just the privileged few?
If license reciprocity for congressmen became law future lawsuits could challenge the portions of the law that limits it to congressmen.
I share your views on a carve-out. Elected officials…who represent “we, the people”, should not be treated differently than the rest of us. The bill should be passed, and that solves the problem for everyone.
With regards to DC permits, however, I’d like to correct a few things. Since they had either come from or were going to their offices in DC, carrying in VA is not practical. There is no place to drop off a firearm before entering the District. That is a hell that those of us who live in Northern VA deal with on a regular basis. What you have on you when you leave the house depends upon where you’ll end up throughout the day.
Also, while carrying large sums of money (your small biz friend) will get you approved in DC, having a general threat will not. The statute reads that you must face a documented threat that is “above the general population”. As written, this should mean that a threat to an identifiable group (i.e.: politicians, veterans, Jews, LGBT, etc) should qualify. However, the District is illegally interpreting this statute more strictly than it was written, and requires the threat to be against you “as an individual”.