Probably the most celebrated line from 1994’s Forrest Gump is Forrest’s blank-faced delivery of “Stupid is as stupid does.” If that’s true, then Ryan Shucard, the press secretary for U.S. Representative Tom Marino (R-PA), has done stupid right: on Friday morning, Shucard was arrested for bringing a handgun into the U.S. Congress.
Specifically, Shucard was arrested for carrying a Smith & Wesson 9mm handgun and a magazine full of ammo into the Cannon House Office building. (Yes, right-wingers thrashing about to find ways to play this down, that counts as “bringing it into Congress.”) He set the metal detectors off when he tried to enter the building and was promptly taken aside where Capitol Police officers found the pistol on him. He was later charged with carrying a pistol without a license, a felony in the District of Columbia. He is currently on unpaid leave while, according to Marino’s spokesperson Bill Tighe, “we know more about the situation.” The Cannon building was briefly closed while the threat to Congressional members and staff was assessed.
An official with the Office of the House Sergeant at Arms says:
“Carrying weapons into the District of Columbia is a very serious offense.”
The official adds that there is no special discretion for Capitol employees and everyone entering federal buildings ought to know what they are bringing along. (Yes, right-wingers, Shucard doesn’t get a pass because it seems he wasn’t aware of that big manly hand cannon strapped to his hip. Gee, anyone could make that mistake. Off you go, Ryan, and good shooting! Not.)
Shucard has pled not guilty to the felony charges. My favorite tidbit from the news of his not-guilty plea is the fact that he made the plea before the judge wearing shackles on his wrists and ankles. You know, because people bringing guns into public places are dangerous and should be treated as such. (Should we even mention that Shucard graduated from Columbine High School — yes, that Columbine — just a few years after the massacre? Or that his dad was one of the cops who responded to the shootings?)
Enjoy his perp walk here.
A few on the right are wailing and tearing out their hair over Shucard’s “unfair” treatment, but, well, we don’t care.
Here’s what we do care about.
Marino’s colleague in the House crazy ward, Representative Thomas Massie (R-Shoot ‘Em All) has succeeded in attaching an amendment to an otherwise unremarkable spending bill that would block the D.C. government from spending a dime to enforce its gun laws. He tried to advance an amendment that would have simply voided any spending to enforce the D.C. gun laws, but was blocked from doing so. The slightly revised “no spendy” amendment, which would leave gun enforcement to “local” law enforcement authorities, sailed right through in committee. Massie’s amendment, he says, keeps law-abiding folks like accused felon Shucard from strutting around D.C.’s mean streets with a 9mm, or presumably an AR-15 or a grenade launcher, strapped to their backsides. All these bad old gun laws do is prevent good and decent people from defending themselves against the onslaught of heavily armed criminals that are bound to descend on us any day now, he says.
D.C. Delegate Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-Sane) called foul on Massie’s attempt to subvert D.C.’s gun laws, saying:
“Even if one were to agree with him, it is an entirely inappropriate amendment to an appropriations bill. This amendment is being offered by a member who claims at every turn to support the principal of local control, of local affairs, yet he is using the big foot of the federal government to overturn local laws.”
“What Rep. Massie apparently intended was to keep the D.C. government, including the Metropolitan Police Department, from enforcing local laws that prohibit the private sale of guns without background checks; the carrying of guns, openly or concealed, on the streets of the nation’s capital; the purchase of guns with no waiting period; the purchase of an unlimited number of guns in one day; the possession of assault weapons, including .50 caliber sniper rifles; and the possession of magazines holding an unlimited number of bullets. Making a big city, which is also the nation’s capital, and a prime terrorist target, one of the most permissive gun jurisdiction[s] in the country would be madness.”
Massie’s Republican colleagues managed to fight their way out of their straitjackets long enough to lard up the same spending bill with other amendments, including one that would prevent the District from spending any money on abortions or on its marijuana decriminalization law, which has just gone into effect. They are daring the White House to veto the bill — and, it seems, Obama is ready to take them up on that dare, having already objected to the House Republicans’ crude attempts to interfere with local D.C. laws.
Think Progress’s Anne-Marie Shuler writes:
“… Massie’s law wouldn’t affect Congressional grounds, because Congress, while in D.C., sets its own separate rules. It’s still likely that it would not be allowed for Shucard to bring in a pistol as he did on Friday. Rather, it means that residents in the rest of the District would have to worry about people like Shucard carrying around weapons with no recourse.”
Some on the left and on the right are speculating that Shucard had something bigger in mind than merely a “derp!” moment of dragging a loaded hogleg into the halls of the federal legislature. Personally, I don’t think either one in the sources I cited are correct — it’s unlikely Shucard planned on shooting up the building as some liberals speculate, or that he deliberately brought the gun in as a challenge to D.C.’s gun laws, as some conservatives think. It’s possible that he brought the pistol into the Cannon Building in some muddled attempt to highlight the Massie amendment, but I doubt that, too. Stupid is as stupid does, and on Friday, Shucard stepped up and knocked the stupid ball right out of the park.
We at Liberal America wish Shucard all the luck in the world with his not-guilty plea. Heh.
Edited by D.H.
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Michael has been writing about politics, history and Web development since 2001. His first book is in development.
