Understandably jumpy at the shootings in Tucson, members of Congress are talking about arming themselves. Ever since Aaron Burr killed Alexander Hamilton in a duel in 1804, delaying the development of a national currency for 60-plus years, armed politicians have not been a good idea in this country.
Terrance Gainer, who is in charge of protecting members of Congress, told ABC, ěI donít think itís a good idea. I donít think introducing more guns into the situation is going to be helpful.î
But Gainer is a former big city chief of police ó Washington, D.C. ó and police chiefs always talk like that, not sharing the civilian enthusiasm for packing heat.
But the idea is being taken seriously. It wasnít always. Peter Brennan, the secretary of Labor under Presidents Nixon and Ford, was ridiculed mercilessly when it was discovered the he carried a gun. The White House was peppered with questions about whether Pistol Packing Pete was allowed to bring his gun to Cabinet meetings and the Oval Office.
Apparently it had never occurred to the presidentís staff to ask his Cabinet members if they were armed. Now those inquiries are likely to become mandatory and the Secretary of Defense will have to go through a metal detector like the common people.
The Associated Press reports that two members of Congress are planning to carry concealed weapons at public events, Reps. Heath Shuler, D-N.C., and Jason Chaffetz, R-Utah.
Neither would seem to be in much danger.
Shulerís district includes the retirees and loft dwellers of Asheville and the blue hairs visiting the Biltmore estate, none of whom would seem to pose much danger. Chaffetz is from Utah, one of the safest states in the country and his district includes Brigham Young University, a notorious hotbed of wholesomeness.
But then Rep. Gabrielle Giffords probably thought she was safe, too, outside her local Safeway.
Threats against members of Congress are relatively rare. Gainer said there were 49 last year, a fairly overheated year politically, not a whole lot when you consider there are 535 people in the House and Senate.
But, as weíve learned, it only takes one.
If the peopleís representatives are going to carry firearms, the people should have some assurance they know how to use them.
A political biography of Rep. Marsha Blackburn, R-Tenn., says she had a perfect score with her Smith & Wesson .38 on a marksmanship test. But then Sarah Palin needed six shots to bring down a caribou that just stood there. And then, of course, there was Vice President Dick Cheney winging a Texas trial lawyer while bird shooting.
The gun business probably went too far when a South Carolina dealer began offering receivers for semi-automatic assault rifles emblazoned with, ěYou lie,î in honor of local GOP congressman Joe Wilson who shouted that out during a presidential address.
Thatís not the kind of restraint and self-discipline youíd like to see in someone carrying an AR-15. And itís not something you want the Secret Service to catch you with.
Some lawmakers approach the problem from a different direction.
Rep. Peter King, R-N.Y., proposes making it a crime to carry a firearm within 1,000 feet of an elected lawmaker or high federal official at a publicly announced event. But there is a portion of the public that will not easily surrender their recently won right to swagger around public gatherings with their weapons.
Rep. Dan Burton, R-Ind., proposes installing a Plexiglas barrier to separate the House Visitors Galley from the members of the floor below. This would seem to solve a problem the House doesnít have, at least not yet, but someday someone may want to exercise the Second Amendment right to keep and bear hand grenades.
The biggest objection to the transparent barrier is that it will make the House floor look like a zoo and one can imagine the ushers whispering to visitors, ěDonít make sudden moves. They spook easily.î
But then we all spook easily these days.

Dale McFeatters writes columns for Scripps Howard News Service.