A man identified as a “special assistant” to anti-gun Democrat U.S. Senator Cory Booker of New Jersey was arrested Monday by U.S. Capitol Police for being armed inside the Capitol Building.
The Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms quickly criticized the senator for his apparent hypocrisy of having an armed “assistant” when he has supported gun control legislation since being elected to the Senate.
Fox News identified the man as Kevin A. Batts, 59, a retired New Jersey police detective. As noted by the Capitol Police in a statement, “All weapons are prohibited from Capitol Grounds, even if you are a retired law enforcement officer, or have a permit to carry in another state or the District of Columbia.”
A spokesperson for Booker released a statement to Fox News in which he explained, “Sen. Booker’s office employs a retired Newark police detective as a New Jersey-based driver who often accompanies him to events. We are working to better understand the circumstances around this.”
But that wasn’t good enough for CCRKBA Chairman Alan Gottlieb, who issued a statement of his own.
“Cory Booker has never met a gun control law he didn’t like,” Gottlieb said. “He has supported all kinds of gun grabbing proposals, the stricter the better. Yet, it is now revealed that Mr. Batts, described as a ‘special assistant’ to Booker, often accompanies him to events. Being a retired police officer makes him just another private citizen, with no special privileges. The fact he apparently goes with Booker, presumably armed, to various events in New Jersey is ample evidence the senator thinks it’s okay for him to have armed security, while he has labored to keep every average citizen disarmed, and vulnerable to violent crime.”
In a video apparently made back in 2016, Booker described Batts as “a friend and team member since 2006 when I became mayor and even before.”
Booker said Batts “joined my security detail as a member of Newark’s executive protection unit.”
“We can’t have any sympathy for Mr. Batts,” Gottlieb explained. “As a former police officer, he surely must know carrying a gun into the U.S. Capitol is strictly prohibited. And, since he is from New Jersey, where average citizens have a very difficult time getting a carry permit and non-residents cannot carry at all, he certainly knows the penalty for carrying without a license in a different jurisdiction.
“We’re reminded of the time back in 1986 when anti-gun-rights Sen. Ted Kennedy’s bodyguard was arrested in the Russell Senate Office Building for having an Uzi and Beretta in his gear,” Gottlieb recalled. “That man was also a former police officer. Booker appears to be cut from the same cloth; presuming his safety is more important than that of the single mom or the working dad going from one job to another to pay their bills and keep their families safe.
“It’s time the senator should understand,” Gottlieb said, “that what’s good for Cory ought to be good for the entire country. Armed personal protection is a right of the people, not a privilege of political office.”
