WILKINS VS CHICHESTER ON GUNS...AP STORY COULD MEAN GUN BATTLE MAY PRESAGE NEW BUDGET IMPASSE.

Speaker Wilkins, despite his image as crusty throwback to an earlier age, sides with the FAB FOUR... While Senate Pro-Tem Chichester, lionized by the 60's generation as the Senator Who Gets It on the Budget...thinks the Beatles ' Revolver Album should be banned in Richmond (actually, I believe the song in question was in the foursome's White Album)..

WHEN DID THIS DUEL ON GUNS BECOME PUBLIC?

Yesterday, An Associated Press story carried nationally provoked a tremendous amount of comment ... and caused me to do a little digging into the rules of the House and the Senate on guns ... with some surprising results ...

First, the AP story .. in pertinent part below..

Guns Still Legal in Capitol Buildings

By BOB LEWIS
.c The Associated Press

RICHMOND, Va. (AP) - Like many states, Virginia has spent hundreds of thousands of dollars since Sept. 11 putting metal detectors and X-ray machines at its Capitol doors to thwart a deadly terrorist rampage.

Visitors now entering the 200-year-old Capitol are asked to let officers inspect anything that might trigger a metal detector - cell phones, pagers, keys and guns.

Yes, guns.

In Richmond, it's legal for people never convicted of a felony to discreetly pack heat -- even in critical government buildings -- as long as they possess a court-issued concealed weapons permit. If the firearm is in plain view, the permit isn't necessary.

``If anything, maybe it makes us safer having law-abiding citizens in here who can defend themselves if they have to,'' said House Speaker S. Vance Wilkins Jr...

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NATURALLY, I PREFER THE WAY THE FAB FOUR PUT IT .... IN THEIR SONG..."Happiness Is a Warm Gun."

"Happiness is a warm gun,
Happiness is a warm gun - ahaa.
When I hold you in my arms,
And I feel my finger on your trigger,
I know nobody can do me no harm"

But, the Speaker being of a another generation in his thinking,
I can understand why he prefers his way of putting it.

THE SPEAKER'S QUOTE ABOVE ... NATURALLY GOT ME THINKING:

COULD SENATOR CHICHESTER TAKE A WEAPON TO THE BUDGET CONFERENCE MEETING.... JUST TO MAKE HIM FEEL SAFER IN THE PRESENCE OF VINCE CALLAHAN, FRANK HALL AND THE OTHER FOLKS PICKED BY THE SPEAKER TO REPRESENT THE HOUSE ON THE COMING BUDGET FIGHT?

AS Mr. Wilkins said...it makes us safer having law-abiding citizens in here who can defend themselves

Surely, given the budget impasse of last year... NEITHER MR. WILKINS NOR MR. CHICHESTER... are going to allow the other...or their rivals respective henchmen... HOLD THEM UP ON THE BUDGET.

Indeed, if they were packing some real heat... more than just some hot rhetoric... WOULD A BUDGET IMPASSE REALLY BE POSSIBLE.

I SAY NO.

THE GOLDMAN CONCLUSION AFTER STUDYING THE FISCAL IRRESPONSIBLITY OF THE GOP LAST YEAR CONCLUDED:

THE BUDGET IMPASSE LAST YEAR WAS CAUSED BY THE FACT THAT NO ONE AT THE CONFERENCE COMMITTEE WAS CARRYING A GUN...

Neither Wilkins nor Chichester ANDand/or their men were carrying THE EQUALIZER.... they were shooting blanks, as they say. That's why we got an impasse.

GOLDMAN CONCLUSION: THE WAY AVOID ANOTHER budget meltdown.... is for the House of Delegates and the Senate to instruct their budget conferees to carry weapons to the conference committee meeting. For those unable to get a concealed weapon's permit, then they should not be permitted to be conferees.

THE PEOPLE OF VIRGINIA WANT OUR BUDGET CONFEREES PACKING... To quote the famous line from Godfather 1, when Sonny Corleone was making plans for Michael to kill his two dinner partners in that great scene, the hot-headed Don told his men:

"When my brother comes out of that bathroom, I want him carrying more than his....(this email is for family distribution, so you fill in the word you believe is appropriate for the reader).."

BUT DO WILKINS AND CHICHESTER AGREE WITH ME THAT THE BUDGET WOULD BE SAFER IF THE CONFEREES CARRIED WEAPONS?

...WHAT ABOUT THE HOUSE AND THE SENATE....DO THEY AGREE WITH ME THAT REAL BULLETS IS WHAT REAL MEN TAKE TO A BUDGET CONFERENCE?

I AM NOT SURE.

The only evidence I could dig up from Jefferson's old manual was a reference to an old news story which talked about a duel on the floor of the House by a couple of delegates from the Southwestern/Western part of the state....

One had been a former Senator from Pulaski, but had run again for the House and won... while living in Roanoke County...

He got into a fight with a guy from Abingdon....and they both pulled out pistols and fired away while the other delegates ducked for cover (the Speaker at the time is reported to have banged his gavel in stop the armed conflict. Nobody much listened, which sometimes a Speaker's lot on things.)

THE KEY GUN FACT: According to the news story, the reporter quoted a bystander saying that this type of thing could never have happened at the Senate.

When asked why, the bystander... actually a spectator in the balcony overlooking the House floor (which later collapsed two years later) said that he used to be a page in the Senate and he remembered the LG stopping a Senator from taking a gun onto the floor of the Upper Chamber, saying this kind of roguish behavior may have been permitted when the Senator was over in the lower house, but they were all gentlemen on the Senate side and this type of thing was not permitted.

SO... GUNS ARE OKAY IN THE HOUSE BUT NOT THE SENATE?

Does the NRA know about this?

Frankly, I am shocked that the Senate would not permit me a member to bring the equalized onto the floor of the Senate.

Is this a Senate rule or just a custom?

I URGE THE SENATE... as it prepares to do battle with the House on the budget, to think about singing this following song by the FAB FOUR before each session.

Happiness Is a Warm Gun

She's not a girl, who misses much.
Do roo roo roo roo, oh yeah.
She's well acquainted with the touch of the velvet hand
Like a lizard on a window pane.
The man in the crowd with the multicoloured mirrors
On his hobnail boots,
Lying with his eyes while his hands are busy working overtime,
A soap impression of his wife which he ate
And donated to the Nation Trust.

I need a fix 'cause I'm going down
Down to the bits that I left uptown,
I need a fix cause I'm going down.
Mother Superior jump the gun,
Mother Superior jump the gun.
Mother Superior jump the gun,
Mother Superior jump the gun.
Mother Superior jump the gun,
Mother Superior jump the gun.

Happiness is a warm gun,
Happiness is a warm gun - ahaa.
When I hold you in my arms,
And I feel my finger on your trigger,
I know nobody can do me no harm,
Because happiness is a warm, Happiness is a warm gun - Yes it is Happiness is a warm - Yes it is - gun.

(C) Copyright. All Rights Reserved. Paul Goldman.2001 (electronic mail, February 5, 2002)