On Friday, police stopped Wesley Alan Beeler at a US Capitol checkpoint, because he had a pro-gun bumper sticker on his truck. When asked, he admitted he was carrying a loaded Glock and five hundred rounds of ammunition. He was arrested for carrying a firearm without a DC license, even though he is registered in neighboring Virginia as a private security agent licensed to carry firearms on the job. Washington, DC does not permit “open carry” of firearms.
Stopping suspicious characters who may be plotting further insurrections during a presidential inauguration is good. But arresting bona fide security agents doing their job, for what amounts to a legal technicality, does nothing to enhance Capitol security, and only contributes to a further alienation of the people from their government. They could have simply confiscated the “contraband” weapons and ammunition, which would have defused the entire situation, without making what is literally a federal case out of it. It is exactly this sort of over-reaction that has half the country so angry at their national government.
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