Building on my previous post about how knee-jerk legislative reactions don’t solve problems, we have yet another knee-jerk legislative reaction that won’t solve the problem:
Rep. Peter King, a Republican from New York, is planning to introduce legislation that would make it illegal to bring a gun within 1,000 feet of a government official, according to a person familiar with the congressman’s intentions.
[…]
It is already illegal in the U.S. to carry a gun within 1,000 feet of a school. King’s legislation to make it illegal to knowingly carry a gun within 1,000 feet of the president, vice president, members of Congress or judges of the Federal Judiciary, would offer government officials the same protection.
Full article here, at the HuffPo.
Interesting choice of reasoning. It would offer government officials the same protection as schools. Well… we’ve seen how well that “schools are a gun free zone” has worked. How is it that Rep. King things “the same protection” would actually be of any good? How will it stop crazy people from going crazy?
Furthermore, why is it that these politicians think they need some sort of special protection? What about the rest of us? Why are they so much more special than the rest of the citizenry? Inflated sense of self-worth?
This shouldn’t happen in this country, or anywhere else, but in a free society, we’re going to be subject to people like this. I prefer this to the alternative.
We don’t need King, Lautenberg, McCarthy, Feinstein, trying to pound through knee-jerk emotion-driven legislation… because they will drive us towards that alternative.
Stuff From Hsoi 
Can’t wait to see the arrest records should that law pass….folks like me who really don’t pay that much attention to where the various congress-critters are wandering officially (never mind the un-official shopping trips….) decides to go shopping at the mall where said official is holding a get together and accidently manage to flash gun cause I had a wardrobe malfunction…yah, that’ll work. Never mind the grocery store trips if you happen to shop at the same grocery as said official?? At least with the prez and v-prez there’s usually enough security fuss that even oblivious folks can tell there’s someone of importance nearby.
I can’t imagine this stuff is going to pass. Or at least, it better not.
I have a low opinion of that groups sense of common sense….
The congressman is a total idiot. How the hell is someone supposed to know where all the government officials are at, all the time?
And if some other nut job decides to shoot one of them, why do they think that law will protect them?
I don’t know who that congressman is, but he has $hit for brains.
By the aura they eminate, of course.
For the same reason they think the gun free school zone will keep the kids safe.
The congressman in question is from Long Island NY which probly explains alot.
The only appropriate solution, of course, is for our duly-elected representatives and public servants to be forced to wear sirens, flashing lights, and other indicators of their presence, such that citizens may avoid them at their discretion.
Hell, I would like that now.
At any rate, what the flying frak are our employees doing even considering this legislation? They are just people, just like you and me – they are not our betters, they are not our superiors, and they are not even our leaders these days. The best that can be said for the vast majority of them is that they won a popularity contest, and now get paid exhorbitant amounts of money to stick their noses in other peoples’ business. Why should they be protected by an invisible, ineffective forcefield while the people of the country are apparently left to rot, and, worse, rendered defenseless while near one of these scumbags?
Yeah. I think not.
Your proposed solution? It reminds me of a Tex Avery cartoon on hunting safety. 🙂
As for your second question… it’s because they are better than us, didn’t you know that?
How outrageous that they think that they deserve better protection than us regular folks.
A law like that inscribes their “elite” status in stone-
It’s an awful thought but professional politicians don’t seem like they would be overly difficult to replace…
Certainly no more than I would be anyways-