Colorado Republican Rep.-elect Lauren Boebert is attracting attention for her efforts at being able to carry a concealed weapon on Capitol Hill. Once she takes office on Jan. 3, she’s likely to join a growing if discreet group of lawmakers packing heat.
According to Kentucky Republican Rep. Thomas Massie, chairman of the Second Amendment Caucus, other members, both Republican and Democrat, carry firearms in the Capitol.
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“There are no Democrats in the Second Amendment Caucus, but I have a reliable source that tells me there are some Democrats who carry concealed,” Massie told the Washington Examiner on Tuesday.
Washington now allows for residents and nonresidents to apply for concealed carry permits after the D.C. Court of Appeals ruled in Wrenn v. District of Columbia in July 2017 that applicants no longer needed to prove to have a “good reason” to get a concealed carry permit.
The gun control advocates did not appeal the D.C. permit case to the Supreme Court out of fear the high court would rule in favor of the litigants looking to expand concealed carry rights across the country.
“They thought they would lose, and then the whole United States would become ‘shall issue’ instead of just Washington, D.C. So, Washington, D.C., is ‘shall issue.’ That’s a recent phenomenon. It’s happened in the last four years,” Massie said.
The Kentucky Republican said that when he first came to Washington in 2012, carrying concealed was still illegal, but not for a member of Congress in the Capitol, which made for a disjointed policy.
“When I was first elected to Congress, I inquired with the sergeant-at-arms about carrying. But at that time, it wasn’t legal in Washington, D.C. The sergeant-at-arms discouraged it,” Massie said. “They were not real supportive of the idea eight years ago because if you’re following D.C. law, how would you get the gun to your office?” Massie said.
“Clearly, the law allowed you to have a gun in your office, but how would you get it to your office if it was illegal in D.C.? Your office borders D.C., but that problem was solved a few years ago with the court ruling.”
Two years ago, Democratic California Rep. Jared Huffman was shocked to learn about a half-century-old Capitol Hill provision that allows lawmakers to keep firearms in their offices as well as carry around the Capitol complex. The Northern California lawmaker sought to roll back the regulation.
However, firearms are banned in legislative chambers and adjacent areas, not including the sergeants-at-arms.
That’s a starkly different situation from the 19th century, when lawmakers carrying guns was a fairly common event.
“During one 1836 melee in the House, a witness observed representatives with ‘pistols in hand,'” noted Yale University history professor Joanne Freeman in a 2011 New York Times op-ed. “In a committee hearing that same year, one House member became so enraged at the testimony of a witness that he reached for his gun; when the terrified witness refused to return, he was brought before the House on a charge of contempt.”
