Posted by
flagwaver on Thursday, January 13, 2011 11:27:35 AM
I generally like Rep.Peter King from New York, but I think he's all wet with his idea of creating a "gun free zone" of 1000 feet around members of Congress, federal judges, and other federal officials. The problem was not the gun, but the disturbed, possibly schizophrenic, young man who attacked Rep. Giffords and the constituents she was there to meet. We don't need new laws to restrict the constitutional rights of the people to bear arms, or for that matter stepped up laws for civil commitments of the suspected mentally ill. Congressman King better than anyone should know that laws should not be made simply because of one serious breakdown in the system.
What was curious about the statement, and which seemed to slip by unnoticed by many, was Rep. King saying that the new laws were needed because the members of Congress constituted a "special class". Maybe that was just a slip of the tongue, but it was a pretty telling slip because that is exactly what the people DO NOT want to hear their representatives saying about themselves. Members of Congress are not special, even though they tend to see themselves that way, which is why the membership of the Congress just went through such a drastic change.
Yes, our representatives may need and deserve an extra level of protection because of their status as public figures, but they are not a special class. Maybe Mr. King needs to take a look around and see how many of his "special" colleagues got their walking papers last November for actually believing in their "special"-ness!