Jim Webb defended the Second Amendment Tuesday night, saying the “average American deserves the right to be able to protect their family” and doesn’t have the benefit of full-time bodyguards.
Webb argued, “There are people at high levels in this government who have bodyguards 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. The average American does not have that and deserves the right to be able to protect their family.”
Hillary Clinton, of course, has full-time Secret Service detail.
Read a transcript of Webb’s remarks below:
Anderson Cooper: Senator Webb, your rating from the NRA, you once had an A-rating from the NRA. You said gun violence goes down when more carry guns. Would encouraging people to be armed be part of your response to a mass shooting?
Jim Webb: Look, there are two fundamental issues involved in this discussion and we need to pay respect to both of them. The first is the issue of who should be kept from having guns and using firearms. And we have done not a good job on that. A lot of them are criminals and a lot of the people getting killed are members of gangs inside our urban areas and a lot of them are mentally incapacitated. In the shooting in Virginia Tech in ’07, this individual had received medical care for mental illness from three different professionals who were not allowed to share the information. So we do need background checks, we need to keep the people who should not have guns away from them. But we have to respect the tradition in this country of people who want to defend themselves and their family from violence. People are going back and forth here for ten minutes here. There are people at high levels in this government who have bodyguards 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. The average American does not have that and deserves the right to be able to protect their family.