In the wake of a shooting that left Louisiana Rep. Steve Scalise and two federal police officers wounded, Reps. Mo Brooks (R-Ala.) and Barry Loudermilk (R-Ga.) introduced legislation which would allow representatives and senators to carry handguns for their own protection.  

However, with District officials and residents firmly opposed to open-carry gun legislation, lines are being drawn between city rights and the safety of legislators.

(AP Photo/Al Behrman)

The shooting took place in the morning hours of June 14 on an Alexandria, Va. baseball field as Scalise and others practiced for an impending Congressional baseball game at Nationals Park. A handwritten list reportedly found by the FBI in a van belonging to the shooter, James Hodgkinson, contained the names of several conservative Republican lawmakers, including Brooks himself as well as Reps. Scot DesJarlais (R-Tenn.), Trent Franks (R-Ariz.) and Morgan Griffith (R-Va.).

In introducing the bill, Loudermilk argued that increased hostility and open aggression toward elected officials required lawmakers to be able to defend themselves.

“If this had happened in Georgia, wouldn’t have gotten too far,” Loudermilk said. “I had a staff member who was in his car maybe 20 yards behind the shooter, who was pinned in his car, who back in Georgia carries a 9-millimeter in his car. He had a clear shot at him. But here, we’re not allowed to carry any weapons here.”

Brooks, who was at the field when the shooting occurred, said the District’s open-carry ban leaves him and others vulnerable to similar attacks.

“Right now, when we’re in Washington, D.C., once we’re off the complex . . . we’re still high-profile targets, but we have absolutely no way to defend ourselves because of Washington, D.C.’s rather restrictive gun laws,” Brooks said.  

“You’ve got a situation where, yes, this one shooter has been killed, but he’s a member of an organization that applauded what transpired on Wednesday,” Brooks added. “And so those of us who are on this assassination list . . . it behooves us to be a little bit more wary than we otherwise might be.”

Whatever the personal threat may be to elected officials, D.C. lawmakers and residents said the solution cannot include usurping the will of residents. In a statement, D.C. Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton said that D.C. local gun safety laws are in place for larger reasons.

“If Representative Brooks believes it is the best policy for members of Congress to carry guns at all times, why not introduce a bill that allows members to carry guns anywhere they go?  The truth is Representative Brooks wants to misuse congressional power over the District of Columbia to single out our local jurisdiction,” Norton said.  “After last week’s shooting, Representative Brooks called for sending a message of unity and bipartisanship to the American people. He is undermining that goal with his attack on D.C.’s local gun safety laws.”

D.C. Mayor Muriel E. Bowser (D) said she could not take a position without reviewing the legislation.

“We, of course, with the council of the District of Columbia pass the laws that we think help make D.C. safer and stronger, and that’s going to be our view,” she said at a news conference on June 15. “I don’t have any idea what is, so I would have to see it first.”

D.C. Councilmember Charles Allen (D-Ward 6), who is chairman of the council’s judiciary and public safety committee, said the District should be able to make its own laws without interference from Congress.

“It feels like, unfortunately, here they go again,” he said. “The voters of the District of Columbia should be the ones who decide what our gun laws are.”