Webb aide arrested on gun charge

March 27, 2007

I’m a little surprised that this story has generated as much fuss as it has, but it seems to have become quite the topic of conversation in political circles.

A top aide to Sen. [tag]James Webb[/tag] was charged yesterday with trying to carry a loaded pistol and extra ammunition into a Senate office building, U.S. Capitol Police said.

The staffer, Phillip Thompson, told police that the gun belonged to Webb (D-Va.), authorities said. Thompson also said he forgot that the gun was in a briefcase and meant no harm, they said.

I’ve heard varying details, but as far as I can tell, Webb gave Thompson his weapons after Thompson dropped him off at the airport. Thompson, a Marine vet and long-time Webb friend, forgot to drop the firearms off before heading back to work at a Senate office building, and Capitol Police arrested him when he, apparently inadvertently, tried to bring the firearms through a security checkpoint.

Now, conservatives seem very excited about this, apparently under the impression that Webb may have violated some law by having unregistered guns in his possession. That doesn’t appear to be the case at all — Virginia doesn’t require gun registration.

This whole incident seems to be just an unfortunate mistake and I hope things work out well for Thompson. His crime appears to have been accidental, so a slap on the wrist seems appropriate.

But as long as this is a political story, I’m not sure it’s such an awful thing for Dems in general.

Consider the frame Taylor Marsh set up yesterday.

If you didn’t see Fox “News” earlier this afternoon with Bush’s boy Brit you missed a doozy. Brit was tripping all over himself trying to discuss Webb’s aide being taken into custody after being found with what was first described as an unregistered firearm, with unregistered ammunition in a bag. The prissy news anchor couldn’t even figure out the word for ammunition and how to describe a magazine clip. When the panel weighed in on the subject they looked and sounded like a bunch of sissies. They just don’t make Republicans like they used to. RedState shot off this half cocked headline: Rumor: Webb Staffer Arrested for Smuggling Gun into Capitol. Like I said, sissies….

I think you can safely say this is a whole new Democratic Party. Some won’t like this event at all. But in recent year’s if you heard a news report like this one the last political party you’d identify it with is the Democrats. Not anymore.

I suspect some will find it odd that a U.S. senator, a Democratic one at that, walks around with two loaded guns, but I have to say, it’s an interesting pitch to voters, isn’t it?

He’s great on taxes and health care, and he’s packing at all times. It’s a new day….

These guys are trying to figure out how to make hay of this story while not pissing on the NRA. A real Catch-22 it is, must suck to be them.

  • Will Webb lose one voter on this? I sincerely doubt it, despite the best effort of Brit to turn this into the Scandal of the Century.

    (and no, I won’t make the obvious but tasteless joke about Hume’s sensitivity to guns)

  • Yep, deafening silence from the NRA on this one. I think Taylor nails the frame on the right-wing reaction to it; the more they push the story, the more likely they are to end up looking exactly like the effete, sissified city boys they’re constantly accusing the Democrats of being. Then if they crow just a bit too loudly, they may eventually piss the NRA off enough that they’ll be forced to defend even a Democratic staffer’s right to carry handguns into the Capitol building. Good times.

  • Brit’s just concerned because, according to his ‘numbers’, all major U.S. cities are much more violent than Iraq and, considering what a mess Iraq is, even one more gun in D.C. might be the tipping point to complete ANARCHY!!!

  • This is a legit story because handgun possession is/was a serious crime in DC which is where the Senate building sits. I’m not sure of the current status of the law as an appeals court recently ruled that the gun ban was unconstitutional.

    I’m a N. Virginian, voted for Webb and not a big fan of handguns. I also know that it is usually not a good idea to cross jurisdictions with a handgun.

  • I hope there’s a good explanation for Webb and his guns (besides wanting to be ready when Bush smart-mouths him again). It’s pretty bizarre to carry guns around. Hopefully they had gone to the range or something. I hope he’s not into some kind of cowboy crap or G. Gordon Liddy home heroics.

    I’d be howling if it were a Rep in the same situation.

    I would never carry a gun. A couple of throwing stars and a garrotte is all a reasonable person needs for the workplace.

  • Anything to get Webb more airtime is fine with me. He kicks ass.

    I think the wingnuts will try to make a stink out of it because Dems are largely responsible for making possession such a serious offense in DC and elsewhere, and they would like to show us how hypocritical we are on gun rights. They of course illogically lump all Dems into the “anti-gun-rights” camp. Here’s instaputz:

    Reader Christopher Fox emails: “Well, Senator, that might be your perception, but as far as I can tell, domestically speaking, we’ve lost around 3,000 civilians and 0 Senators to the post-9/11 dangers of which you speak. It’s a more dangerous time for all of us, and civilians seem to be shouldering the majority of that risk. So maybe we can, I don’t know, all get to carry unregistered firearms around wherever we like? No? Why not?”

    Why not, indeed? Certainly Webb should take the lead in making it possible for ordinary Americans — not just “people who are in government” — to protect themselves as he does.

    Luckily, most Dems have (for now) largely learned their lesson about the efficacy of gun restrictions on people willing to abuse guns.

  • Dale wins the Nobel Truth Prize for admitting he would be howling if it were a Republican in this situation. I must admit the same about myself.

    I, too, like Webb, but his hauling heat IS a little bizarre. Anyhow, it seems the story should be the other way round. Webb’s aide should be totting the gun first — as Webb’s “Second” in any duels that might come up between the Senator and, say, Dick Cheney.

    Ah, for the Democratic days of Old Hickory.

  • Webb is a former Marine. The only demographics who love guns more are cops and rednecks. Having grown up with all three in my family, I can understand why he carries the gun, I don’t understand how he forgot he still had it.

  • An interesting related incident:

    [John] Hostettler (R-IN) was briefly detained at Louisville International Airport on April 20, 2004 when he attempted to board a flight for Washington, D.C. with a loaded 9 mm GLOCK pistol in his bag. The congressman explained he had “completely forgot” the gun was there. [6] On August 10th, he pled guilty to carrying a deadly concealed weapon and agreed to a plea bargained sentence of 60 days that would be suspended for two years. On October 4, 2004, a Kentucky judge issued a bench warrant for his arrest after he failed to pay court costs, but it was set aside a few hours later after his law firm paid the fine.

    http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=John_Hostettler

  • Gee, let’s compare:
    Mark Foley: Tried to sneak into the Pages’ Quarters.
    Specter’s Aides: Snuck a provision about USAs into the PATRIOT Act.
    George Bush: Snuck an entire army into Iraq for the hell of it.
    Webb’s Aide: Accidentally carried a gun into a government building.

    OH MY GOD, the Democrats are c-raaaazee!

    Bugboy nails it. The fRight Wing can’t make too big a deal out of this incident because that will piss off their viewers and it does make them sound like big panty waists.

    Plus it plays havoc with the Democrats are Hippy Peaceniks Who Want to Take Yer Guns talking point.

    And didn’t some fRight Wing darling (Coulter?) recently get busted with an unregistered gun?

    Anderson Cooper ran something on this last night with the headline: Oh, That Gun. the implication being, how the hell can you forget you’re carrying a gun? Well, the only person in my family who regularly owned a gun was one very fiesty great-granny. Great-gran carried this thing in her purse. I know that if for some reason I had to carry a gun I would be horribly aware of it the whole time. But I imagine that a person who is used to weapons and (in this case) has been in the service and dealt with weapons that turn buildings into powder could very easily forget he was carrying a gun.

  • Not even the most anti-gun democrats are going to throw overboard the guy that triumphed over George Felix Macaca Allen. NRA gun nuts are going to be happy with a senator who routinely packs heat. All in all, a good day for Webb.

    Too bad it didn’t go off accidentally and wing Cheney. Now that would have made for an interesting comparison.

  • I think this arrest was appropriate. You never know when someone with a loaded weapon might get drunk off their ass and start blazing away at lawyers.

    An ounce of prevention, you know….

  • I would think that this would only improve Webb’s bona fides within certain elements of his constituency.

  • ***effete, sissified city boys***

    Well now—didn’t Webb just beat one of those “citified sissies” in an election a few months ago?

    Yep.

    And do I feel worried that a sitting US Senator who can verbally bitch-slap Queen George-toria over the Iraq War is packing heat?

    Nope.

    Dems with guns. It may be the one thing that’ll scare the bovine excrement outta those wonder-wussies over at FUX news….

  • I think it will be more interesting if for once the national media ends up running with our framing rather than the right’s. It could be a watershed moment for taking back the news cycle.

  • Racersave #6, Dale #7 and Alibubba #9 speak for me. I like Webb, but this does not seem to be a “shining moment” for him. And, I would not look past this if this had been George Macaca Allen or any other good old Republican boy (or girl) who was involved.

  • Heck, I thought “concealed carry” was mandatory or at least got you a tax rebate or something in Virginia.

    Personally, I wouldn’t carry a gun around, but it’s not anathema to me either — certainly not for Webb, who’s a level-headed guy, and generally not for anyone else if it’s legal in the state. Webb was trying *not* to go where he shouldn’t with a gun by handing them off at the airport. The guy he gave them to forgot about them and unfortunately, but accidentally, *did* go where he shouldn’t with them. End of story. Did I miss anything?

  • I know someone who had gone camping, got called back to work, and went through airport security with a big ol’ huntin’ knife. He got arrested, lawyered up, got fined and got released.

    This story is a nothing with a nothing.

  • ’m a little surprised that this story has generated as much fuss as it has — CB

    I’m not. I’ve just been reading up on it in WaPo (not just the linked story but all the pparallel ones as well) and it it has all sorts of “human interest” angles (like: it was Thompson’s 45th b-day yesterday. Spending the night in jail was hardly the best way to celebrate).

    And it has all sorts of hints at a mystery. Thomson says that it was Webb’s gun, that Webb gave it to him before getting on a plane,and he carried it into th building forgetting it was in the briefcase. Which suggests no time lapse at all. In fact, here’s what CB says:
    […] Webb gave Thompson his weapons after Thompson dropped him off at the airport. Thompson […] forgot to drop the firearms off before heading back to work at a Senate office building.

    But.

    Webb says he was in New Orleans since Friday, which is where he first heard about the story. The incident, OTOH, happened on Monday morning. So, the guy was carrying Webb’s gun in (whose?) briefcase for 3 days? And it completely slipped his mind? He went home for the weekend, tossed the briefcase into a corner, forgot it had a loaded gun in it, then picked it up on Monday to take to work? This is a Marine, a family man, presumably responsible about how he handles weapons, not some over-testeroned jerk.

    So it’s a tad strange. What’s worse, Webb says he never gave Thompson any guns, though he does admit he carries (with a permit) in VA… (But we knew that — it was hard not to laugh when Webb did some campaigning at an annual gun show in nearby Roanoke and the wrong wing had conniptions. Even though, personally, I’d like to see all weapons, all over the world, *destroyed*, not just legislated to hell and gone)

    If I were DC press, I’d be on it, like white on rice, too. I’m glad though that, during the press conference, Webb talked about the legislative business (Iran) *first*, before tackling (in a very tight-lipped way) the aide story.

    Off to see what Raising Kane is saying about the story…

  • Errant mistake by a Webb staffer? …. Or brilliant move by Webb to put a wooden stake though the heart of the “Dems are sissies” crowd? It’s not the weapon that does this, it’s the two extra clips that seals the deal. This should create some real cognitive dissonace on the right wing. Webb is the new Teddy Roosevelt .. speak softly and carry a big piece .. with a couple of extra clips.

    I just hope this doesn’t become a trend.

  • Wait for the new talking point: Webb intentionally set his aide up to be arrested because he wanted to get it out there that he’s a real gun-totin hombre. This was all a cynical ploy to puff up his red-state creds.

  • I’m not a gun expert, but isn’t it wrong by any standard to lock a LOADED gun into its carrying case? Why would an ex-Marine make such a stupid mistake? unless he wasn’t the one who put it in the case. But it’s also a violation to let unqualified people handle your guns.

  • The real question is whether that gun was one of the ones Webb used to use when he drove around LA with his buddies aiming guns at black people.

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