Sen. Jim Webb, D-Va., told reporters Tuesday that he has every right to defend himself but declined to accept any responsibility for the loaded handgun one of his top aides carried into a Senate office building earlier this week.
“If you look at the number of people who are defending the president and other members of the executive branch, there is not that kind of protection available to people in the legislative branch,” he told a throng of reporters crammed outside the Senate chamber. “We are required to defend ourselves, and I choose to do so.”
Webb would not, however, say whether the gun that aide Phillip Thompson was arrested for carrying into the Russell Senate Office Building on Monday morning belonged to him or not. He would say only that he did not give the gun to Thompson. He said he did not want to “prejudice” the case against his staffer.
Thompson was charged with possession of a loaded pistol without a license and carrying an unregistered gun and two full clips of ammunition.
Webb said he has a license to carry a concealed weapon in Virginia. Sources close to him told The Examiner that he often carries a gun.
“I think this is one of those very unfortunate situations where, completely inadvertently, he took the weapon into the Senate” office building, Webb said Tuesday.
He blamed the incident on confusion stemming from the fact that he was at the airport at the time of the incident, preparing to fly to New Orleans.
“We had three cars on Friday that were being moved about because of my trip, and that is probably a reason that this inadvertent situation developed,” Webb said.
Thompson’s arrest came as Democrats and Republicans on Capitol Hill are fighting over the District’s gun ban. House Republicans last week derailed legislation to give the District a vote in Congress by attaching a provision to overturn the gun ban.
Unlike many congressional Democrats, Webb said he supports gun rights.
“It’s important for me personally, and for a lot of people in the situation that I am in, to be able to defend myself and my family,” Webb said. “Since 9/11, for people who are in government … it’s a more dangerous time.”
Even so, Webb said, he has never carried a gun into the Capitol complex.
