In an interview last week, Former FBI Director James Comey stated he refused to carry a gun when he was with the bureauI. In fact, it ‘s likely that one of the nation’s chief law enforcement officers never carried a gun at any time during his career.
In his memoir, A Higher Loyalty, James Comey writes of his time at the FBI: “In every staff meeting, 80 per cent of the attendees had a gun on them. I eventually grew accustomed to seeing a pistol in an ankle holster when the deputy director crossed his legs during a meeting.”
He was permitted to carry one himself but chose not to. “I was surrounded by armed people all day long. If I wasn’t safe in the hands of the FBI, then our country was really in trouble.”
Mr Comey spoke of how he worked with the Brady Campaign To Prevent Gun Violence on engaging with the NRA to improve drugs laws during the early part of his career as a prosecutor.
Comey grew up in Yonkers, New York and obtained his Bachelors of Science at the College of William and Mary in Virginia, well before Virginia passed a shall issue concealed carry law.
He obtained his law degree from the University of Chicago at a time when it was illegal to possess pistols there that hadn’t been previously registered with the city. Only government officials such as aldermen were allowed to carry firearms in Chicago.
After graduating from law school in 1985, he clerked for a New York Judge and joined the law firm of Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher. In 1993, he joined the law firm of McGuireWoods, LLP, based in Virginia. He became a partner in 1996.
In 1995, Virginia passed a shall issure Concealed Carry law. In 1996 he became a special deputy counsel of the committee investigating the Whitewater real estate scandal involving Hillary and President Clinton.
1996 was the year James Comey began a five-year term as Assistant U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia. He likely would not have been able to carry at work, as a federal lawyer in government offices. He was a U.S. Attorney from 2001 to 2005.
From 2005 to 2010 he was Vice President of Lockheed Martin, headquartered in Bethesda, Maryland. Concealed Carry permits are difficult to obtain in Maryland. Comey might have been able to get one given his powerful and connected position, but we have seen no evidence of this.
From 2010 to 2013 he was General Counsel at Bridgewater Associates in Westport, Connecticut. Concealed Carry permits can be obtained in Connecticut with some difficulty, but there is no evidence the James Comey had one.
In early 2013, he became a Senior Fellow at Columbia Law School, and served on the board of HSBC holdings until July of 2013. Columbia University is in New York City, where carry permits are nearly impossible to obtain.
He was appointed as Director of the FBI in September of 2013.
Given that Comey has stated that he didn’t carry a gun as Director of the FBI, it’s very likely that he never regularly carried a gun in his life.
This is important. The mindset of a person who has chosen to be unarmed is radically different from one who has chosen to be armed.
Machiavelli states it well in The Prince:
Because there is nothing proportionate between the armed and the unarmed; and it is not reasonable that he who is armed should yield obedience willingly to him who is unarmed, or that the unarmed man should be secure among armed servants. Because, there being in the one disdain and in the other suspicion, it is not possible for them to work well together.
James Comey decided to be unarmed. It’s not surprising, then, that he is in favor of infringements on the Second Amendment. The Second Amendment offers him relatively little. He may see armed people as threats.
Thus, he has no problem with restricting the right of the people to be armed. Those restrictions don’t affect him personally. He is infringing on other peoples’ rights, similar to legislatures that spend other peoples’ money.
Politicians who have chosen to never carry a gun shouldn’t be put in charge of people who do so every day. It is no coincidence that most presidents had personal experience in carrying guns.
©2018 by Dean Weingarten: Permission to share is granted when this notice and link are included.