When Congress Was Armed And Dangerous

[steve2470]

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/01/12/opinion/12freeman.html?src=me&ref=general

THE announcement that Representatives Heath Shuler of North Carolina and Jason Chaffetz of Utah are planning to wear guns in their home districts has surprised many, but in fact the United States has had armed congressmen before. In the rough-and-tumble Congress of the 1830s, 1840s and 1850s, politicians regularly wore weapons on the House and Senate floors, and sometimes used them.

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.

[geckosfeet]

1. There is a reason why they stopped wearing sidearms in congress. Stupid.

Don't the congressional security agencies need to monitor who is carrying at any given time in and around the capitol? Second amendment now-withstanding, don't the security agencies have responsibility and absolute authority with respect to security measures?

[Ezlivin]

2. "I say we go back in there and nerve gas the whole fuckin' nest."

Vasquez: Okay. We have several canisters of CM-20. I say we go back in there and nerve gas the whole fuckin' nest.
Hicks: It's worth the try, but we don't know if that's gonna effect them.
Hudson: Let's just bug out and call it even, why are we talking about this for?
Ripley: I say we take off, and nuke the site from orbit. It's the only way to be sure.
Hudson: Fuckin' a.
Burke: Whoa, whoa wait a a minute. This place has a substantial dollar value attached to it.
Ripley: They can bill me.
Burke: Look. I know this is an emotional moment for all of us, okay I know that. But let's not make snap judgments, this is an important species we're dealing with, and I don't think that you or I has the right to arbitrarily exterminate them.
Ripley: Wrong.
Vasquez: Yeah, watch us. (Aliens, 1986)

I think we should listen to Vasquez

[Fumesucker]

3. Vasquez was too namby pamby..

Ripley was the one to listen to. "I say we take off and nuke the site from orbit. It's the only way to be sure".

That works for so many things on so many levels.

[Ezlivin]

4. I'm with you...

I was hoping for a Ripley supporter to come along!

[somone]

5. Most countries don't allow firearms in parliament for a reason:

(Fight in Taiwan parliament)