I was among 175 constituents at a breakfast hosted by Sen. Dianne Feinstein June 14 when she announced the shooting at an Alexandria, Va., baseball park. The few details she had were the shooter targeted Republican members of Congress who were practicing for a congressional baseball game and many shots were fired.
My mind flashed back to the November 1978 news footage of San Francisco City Supervisor Dianne Feinstein announcing the assassination of Mayor George Moscone and Supervisor Harvey Milk. It was equally disturbing the Alexandria shooting of a U.S. Congressman, later announced to be House Majority Whip Steve Scalise of Louisiana, and the flashback to 1978’s killing of the country’s first elected openly gay politician.
Sen. Feinstein recalled for constituents another mass shooting in San Francisco in 1993 when aggrieved legal client, Gian Luigi Ferri, killed eight and wounded six others before killing himself at 101 California Street. She said, as a freshman senator in 1993, she supported the Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act, H.R.3355, in the 103rd Congress. In 1994, President Clinton signed the Act into law but it expired in 2004.
Sen. Feinstein expressed frustration with continued gun violence. Some people see guns as the answer to their problems, she said. She has fought gun violence her entire political career.
[A 1982 UPI article described then-San Francisco Mayor Dianne Feinstein’s effort to ban handguns in the city. “We’ve had enough death, dismemberment, and desecration in our society from the handgun,” Feinstein said at the time. A Southern California lawmaker called her a “jackass.”]
U.S. Congressman Scalise was seriously wounded in his left hip in the June 14 shooting and three others, including one of the two U.S. Capitol Police assigned to Scalise, were wounded. The lone shooter, James Hodgkinson, a Bernie Sanders presidential supporter, was killed by U.S. Capitol Police at the scene. Hodgkinson used a hand gun and a rifle and was intent on killing Republicans. At time of this posting, Scalise remains hospitalized.
Several GOP political leaders were practicing that morning for the annual congressional charity baseball game, played June 15. Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul was at the scene and described it as a potential “killing field” had not the U.S. Capitol Police been present.
Vermont senator and former 2016 Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders strongly condemned the shooting. Other Democrats, including House Minority leader Nancy Pelosi, did also.
Hours after the dramatic events announced by Sen. Feinstein, another shooting occurred in San Francisco. A disgruntled UPS worker killed three coworkers before killing himself. This incident caused me to have another flashback.
In 1969, an uncle was killed by a coworker who had a grudge against him. A jury later acquitted the shooter. Very few people are unaffected by gun violence in our country.
Days after the June 14 shooting in Alexandria, several Members of Congress moved to bring trainers from the National Rifle Association to teach interested members and staffers to defend themselves. Some members suggested concealed guns should be carried by members of Congress as Hodgkinson was “hunting for Republicans.” An alternative would be a U.S. Capitol Police officer in every congressional office.
The week after the shooting, I went to Sen. Rand Paul’s Russell Building office to pick up a signed copy of one of his books for a friend in Walnut Creek, Calif. Normally, members of Congress leave their office doors open for constituents. If doors are closed, they are unlocked so constituents can easily enter.
When I arrived at Paul’s door, a sign posted outside directed me to call a number inside the office before entering. As I mentioned, Paul was at the baseball practice where Scalise was shot. His locked door in the immediate aftermath of the shooting was clearly a security measure for his staffers.
If members of Congress and staffers begin carrying guns in the House and Senate Office buildings, and presumably in the House and Senate chambers, constituents may need to wear bullet proof vests when visiting their lawmakers. Given the heated debate in Congress, lawmakers themselves may need to wear vests. This happened in San Francisco after the Moscone/Milk assassinations.
Former San Francisco Supervisor Carol Ruth Silver, who served with Milk and Feinstein in 1978, told me she was issued a bullet proof vest after fellow Supervisor Dan White committed the murders at City Hall. San Francisco police believed Silver was also to be targeted for assassination by White and they issued her a vest.
In a recent telephone conversation, Silver, who still lives in San Francisco, told me she has the vest packed away. I told her when her work brings her to call on her lawmakers in Washington, she should bring the vest with her.
Gun violence from coast to coast, from era to era, from gay life to straight life. I agree with Feinstein’s 1982 statement: “We’ve had enough death, dismemberment and desecration in our society from the handgun.”
Are more guns the answer to gun violence? Are more police the answer? Mandatory death penalty? Lawmakers keep struggling with balancing gun rights, freedom and crime.
Angry political protests, as Feinstein mentioned at her June 14 breakfast, lead some people to see guns as the answer to their problem. People like Dan White and James Hodgkinson. Where is the next shooting? Who is the next shooter?
Californian Jim Patterson writes from Washington, D.C. JEPWriter@gmail.com
