Oh boy - here is the answer: Texas Republican Rep. Gohmert drafts bill to allow guns on House floor

[kpete]

January 12, 2011

Gohmert drafts bill to allow guns on House floor

Texas Republican Rep. Louie Gohmert says his office is drafting a measure to allow members of Congress to carry guns in the District of Columbia, including in the Capitol and on the House floor.

Gohmert says he and his colleagues need to be able to protect themselves, in light of the mass shooting in Arizona.

“It’d be a good thing for members of Congress who want to carry a weapon in the District,” he said. “I know friends that walk home from the Capitol. There’s no security for us,” he said, adding that the measure would deter people from attacking members. “There is some protection in having protection.”

He said there were times during the health care debate last year that he felt afraid, including when a stranger approached him on the street and started screaming at him.

MORE: http://www.politico.com/blogs/glennthrush/0111/Gohmert_drafts_bill_to_allow_guns_on_House_floor.html?showall

[nadinbrzezinski]

1. louis wants to go back to the good ol' days of the House

BEFORE the civil war...

[RamboLiberal]

5. NY Times Today: When Congress Was Armed And Dangerous

During one 1836 melee in the House, a witness observed representatives with “pistols in hand.” 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.

Perhaps most dramatic of all, during a debate in 1850, Senator Henry Foote of Mississippi pulled a pistol on Senator Thomas Hart Benton of Missouri. (Someone eventually took it from his hand.) Foote had decided in advance that if he felt threatened, he would grab his gun and run for the aisle in the hope that stray shots wouldn’t hit bystanders.

Most famously, in 1856, Representative Preston Brooks of South Carolina caned Senator Charles Sumner of Massachusetts on the Senate floor so brutally that Sumner had to be virtually carried from the chamber — and did not retake his seat for three years. Clearly, wielded with brute force, a cane could be a potent weapon.

By the 1850s, violence was common in Washington. Not long after Sumner’s caning, a magazine told the story of a Michigan judge who traveled by train to the nation’s capital: “As he entered the main hall of the depot, he saw a man engaged in caning another ferociously, all over the room. ‘When I saw this,’ says the judge, ‘I knew I was in Washington.’

In Congress, violence was often deployed strategically. Representatives and senators who were willing to back up their words with their weapons had an advantage, particularly in the debate over slavery. Generally speaking, Northerners were least likely to be armed, and thus most likely to back down. Congressional bullies pressed their advantage, using threats and violence to steer debate, silence opposition and influence votes.

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/01/12/opinion/12freeman.html?_r=1&ref=opinion

Last paragraph seems like nothing changed.

[PBS Poll-435]

2. I feel bad for Tyler/Longview.

This man is a MORAN.

[Cerridwen]

3. I miss Molly...and Ann.

Either of them could have addressed this insanity in a funny way. I'm just angry and disgusted.

:(

[lpbk2713]

4. Fully armed Navy SEALS to be posted at all entrances.

It wouldn't surprise me.

[Vinnie From Indy]

6. WTF does he have to worry about?

As far as I know, it is only Democratic lawmakers that have anthrax sent to their offices, are spit on and shot while holding constituent meet-ups.

Maybe Gohmert would like the Weeper of the House to bang a pistol instead of gavel to bring the house to order.

[immoderate]

7. C-SPAN will be more interesting!

Imagine how many Youtube replays the first shoot-out on the house floor will get.

--imm

[nadinbrzezinski]

9. Well it will make watching

the South Korean tapes, tame in comparison.

[Vickers]

8. "a stranger approached him on the street and started screaming at him"

I hope he knows that you can't shoot people just for yelling.

:eyes:

[aquart]

10. Now there's a genius.

The nervous nellie wants a gun because he is scared of loud voices? Is Congress where he belongs?

[JI7]

11. isn't this the asshole who said Brown Kids grow up to be Terrorists ?

[cynatnite]

12. Give everyone guns and let them take them everywhere! n/t

[Mrs. Overall]

13. What?? I thought this was a joke from the Onion at first. Unbelievable.

[Angry Dragon]

14. I just do not understand this

All I hear from the right is that this was not a political issue, yet we have all these
republicans asking for protection.

One wants to limit guns within 1000 feet of federal people. One wants to put up bullet proof glass in the House Chambers.
This guy wants all members to carry guns. By their actions and statements they are saying that this was political attack.
They are calling all the talking heads on the right LIARS.

They are calling rush, palin. beck, hannity, lewis, and all the other ones LIARS. This was a political assassination and
they know it was because of all the hate speech coming from the right and now they are afraid it will start coming to their door and
they are afraid. They are now learning that when you spread hate it may come and knock on your door. Because one never knows where that
hate will travel.

[derby378]

15. The last time that happened, I seem to remember the South seceded...

...and guns on Capitol Hill came after a Southern legislator beat a Yankee senseless with his cane.

[Tesha]

16. This is one of the first things the Republicans passed in NH...

...this year as they took control of our State Leg.

Gotta have those guns!

Tesha