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Why didn’t at least one or two of the members have a gun in their bags?

One member who was there with his staffer waiting in the car said if they were back in his home district in Georgia, the staffer would have had a gun in the car with him, and so would have been able to act to stop the shooter. But given that they were headed to the Capitol complex in Washington, D.C., after practice, where they would presumably be parking in the garage, he couldn’t have that weapon in the car.

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And though some in the news media are talking about Virginia’s fairly relaxed gun laws, the city of Alexandria, which is right across the Potomac River from Washington, D.C., has a strict concealed-carry law that requires a person to apply directly to the city to obtain a permit.

And the District of Columbia has some of the most restrictive gun laws in the country.

“Technically, there’s a way to get a concealed-carry permit in D.C,” says Tim Schmidt, founder of the U.S. Concealed Carry Association, “but it’s almost impossible.”

“It’s absolutely insane that probably one of the most dangerous places in our country is the one place where a citizen can’t carry a gun,” he told LifeZette.