http://www.ibdeditorials.com/IBDArticles.aspx?id=259974513164131

Gun Control: Democrats are noticeably silent as freshman Sen. James Webb packs heat and leaves an aide literally holding the bag. So why should their constituents not have the same right to self-defense?

Webb was selected to run against Republican George Allen last year in part because of his support of the Second Amendment. Webb sees the right to keep and bear arms as an individual right. It was part of the Democrats' plan not only to recapture the Senate but to make inroads into red-state America.

Webb represents Virginia, a right-to-carry (RTC) state that lets residents carry concealed weapons. The District of Columbia doesn't allow even the private ownership of guns, much less their concealment. And Capitol grounds are certainly off-limits.

Reports of the incident involving Webb's aide are sketchy and conflicting. But we know that Phillip Thompson was arrested and spent his birthday in custody for trying to enter the Russell Senate Office Building, where Webb's office is located, with a bag carrying Webb's loaded gun and two fully loaded magazines.

We can't imagine the uproar if he had been an aide to a GOP senator. No doubt we'd have been bombarded with file footage of Columbine and every other mass shooting in memory. Instead we have stony silence from those who were happy to exploit Webb's position on the Second Amendment to get him elected.

Either they support his position or they don't. If not, where's the condemnation?

This incident comes just after a ruling by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit (in Parker v. District of Columbia) striking down the district's draconian ban on the private ownership of firearms as a violation of the Second Amendment. The court ruled that its high placement in the Bill of Rights makes the right to keep and bear arms, along with speech, religion, etc., an individual right.

Webb has a firearm, he says, for protection. Gun-control advocates argue that letting people carry guns encourages their reckless use. They ignore incidents such as last month's Trolley Square mall shooting in Utah, where an off-duty police officer carrying a concealed weapon saved untold numbers of lives by killing a disturbed young man from war-torn Bosnia who had entered the mall and started shooting, killing five. Utah is one of 40 RTC states.

One of the great untold stories is how armed private citizens, exercising their constitutional right to self-defense, have repeatedly saved their lives and others' and have helped reduce violent crime.

Since 1991, according to NRAILA.org, 23 states have adopted RTC laws. In the same period, the number of privately owned firearms has risen by nearly 70 million and violent crime is down 38%. In 2005, RTC states had, on average, a 22% lower violent crime rate, a 30% lower murder rate, a 46% lower robbery rate and a 12% lower aggravated-assault rate.

Researchers John Lott and David Mustard have found that 'allowing citizens to carry concealed weapons deters violent crimes, and it appears to produce no increase in accidental deaths. If those states that did not have right-to-carry concealed gun provisions had adopted them in 1992, approximately 1,570 murders, 4,177 rapes and over 60,000 aggravated assaults would have been avoided yearly.'

The problem is not with Sen. Webb feeling the need to protect himself. It is with those who feel that citizens in the District of Columbia, or anywhere else, should not have the right or the ability to defend themselves. That is truly criminal.