Gunslinger’s rights: it only seems mad to foreigners

Congressman Louie Gohmert, a Republican from Texas, knows what to do to ensure that an assassin's killing spree like that in Arizona doesn't happen again. He is proposing a law allowing his colleagues in the House and the Senate to carry their own guns at all times, even on the benches of their debating chambers.

The hallowed halls of Capitol Hill are one of the very few places in all of the 50 states of America where no one but a policeman - not even a President or Defence Secretary - may carry a gun. That, says Gohmert, must change.

To most of the world, the idea of curtailing a culture of political violence by escalating the personal weapons arms race seems completely bonkers. That the ban on guns on Capitol Hill was put there to safeguard politicians – remember Lincoln, the Kennedys Jack and Robert, Reagan et al – seems to make sense. Not to Americans – well, not to all of them, anyway.

Gohmert is a former judge, no less, and he is serious. He is writing his bill specifically to allow elected representatives to "carry concealed weapons". It will be fine, however, if your Senator prefers to wear his 9mm semi-auto visibly on his hip, like a cop, or his long-barrelled Colt in an open holster, like John Wayne.

The former judge is not the only congressman reaching for his gun.

As President Obama and his host of cabinet secretaries dispersed to dispense empathy this week, Jason Chaffetz, Republican of Utah, and Heath Shuler, Democrat of North Carolina, were filling in the gaps in the news programmes by telling the nation that from now on they would be carrying their guns whenever they were back home among their constituents.

Both men already have their "concealed carry" licences. Schuler got his after a death threat in 2009. Chaffetz has had his for years, and sometimes has a gun in his pocket, sometimes not.

The official platitudes of national grief after a killing spree such as this one have it that such mayhem is un-American, a travesty to the peaceful values of the nation which cannot be destroyed by either terrorist or looney and that, with prayers and goodwill, America will "heal".

The truth is that Gohmert and his gunslingers are the real representatives of the American Way. Violence has always been endemic to the culture, and the gun has always been the symbol of "freedom".

That is why the Second Amendment with its "right to bear arms" has proved so successful a fountainhead for the sophistry that has made America uniquely dangerous among developed nations.

Americans have been voting for the Gohmerts with their 'pocket books', the most powerful vote of all. Since the shooting, sales of all guns have spiked in Arizona, and there has been a run on Glock automatic pistols – the Tucson shooter's weapon of choice - around the country. After all, you can't get better advertising than real-life proof of how good a pistol is at killing.

The aberrations come when there is a gun law. Among the lonelier voices raised since Gifford took a bullet in the head in Tucson, and six others died, is that which calls for at least a ban on the multi-bullet magazines that allow one shooter to kill a dozen or so with a single blast. There are magazines that load as many as 17 slugs in a gun you can still slip under your belt.
 
Those who call for the ban on 'multi-bullet magazines' point out that they are used not for hunting, nor even protecting the wife from the rapist/burglar/terrorist, but solely for killing as many people as possible as quickly as possible.

These protesters have not been doing their home work. Twenty years ago, to the fury of the gun lobby, such a law was passed, prompted by the slaughter of 23 in a spree-killing in a cafeteria in Killeen, Texas. But that law, the Assault Weapons Ban, was simply allowed to expire as the right-to-bear arms joined the ranks of the "wedge issues" which so successfully brought the Republicans to Washington dominance.

The Brady Laws on semi-automatic handguns, inspired by the attempted assassination of Ronald Reagan, have since been eviscerated by decrees of "conservative" courts ruling in the same climate. You can win votes by toting sub-machine guns and shooting moose, but you can lose office fast if you vote for a gun law.

Only last year, the Supreme Court struck down as unconstitutional a ban on guns in the recreational parks of the city of Seattle, a city ordinance inspired by a gang battle that left a dozen dead. Good to know that an American has a right to bring his Glock along to make sure his kids are safe on the swings and roundabouts.

And the year before, Congress voted to allow visitors to bring their guns to the National Parks such as Yosemite and Yellowstone. (The Indians are long gone, most of the bears were shot years ago, and there are other laws prohibiting shooting the elk or the wolves.)

The rest of the world may shake its head in wonder, but to Americans this makes perfect sense. After all, when you go for a drive you want that pistol in the glove compartment. Why would you leave it at the gates to the park? ·