The Senator Jim Webb/Phillip Thompson gun flap

Bob Owens explains it in a nutshell:

Congressmen and Senators can bring firearms into heavily-protected federal buildings guarded by permanent on-duty police officers, but residents of Washington, DC are not allowed to have weapons to defend themselves or their families in their homes.

Nope, no double standard here.

Odd, but true.

By the way, Senator Webb said he did NOT give his aide the loaded gun:

Sen. Jim Webb (D-Va.) said Tuesday that he did not give staffer Phillip Thompson the pistol whose possession got the aide arrested Monday when he tried to enter the Russell Senate office building.

“I have never carried a gun in the Capitol complex and I did not give the weapon to Phillip Thompson, and that’s all that I think I’ll say” Webb told reporters.

“I think this is one of those very unfortunate situations where, completely inadvertently, he took the weapon into the Senate yesterday” Webb added. The senator noted that he was in New Orleans from Friday until Monday. He speculated that the incident happened because three of his cars were moved because of the trip.

Webb also pointed out that he could not go into too many specifics because Thompson is being arraigned Tuesday.

Mary Katharine Ham gets it right:

It goes without saying– but I’ll say it, anyway, because it’s fun– that a Republican senator would be getting the tongue-lashing of his life from the national press and fellow members of Congress if this had happened on the other side of the aisle.

Thank goodness it wasn’t a Republican. We’ve got enough drama going on in our party without adding something like this into the mix.

It should be noted, for what it’s worth, that Webb is more like a Republican on gun rights than Democrats.